No one was going to stop me from writing and no one had to really guide me towards science fiction. It was natural, really, that I would take that interest.

I'm trying to speak--to write-the truth. I"m trying to be clear. I'm not interested in being fancy, or even original. Clarity and truth will be plenty, if I can only achieve them.

The only black people you found were occasional characters or characters who were so feeble-witted that they couldn't manage anything, anyway. I wrote myself in, since I'm me and I'm here and I'm writing.

Most of us don't have to worry about being shot of we poke our noses outside. So we are comfortable, but the people I'm writing about are definitely not comfortable, and being shot while they're still inside is a good possibility.

Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself. Every story I write adds to me a little, changes me a little, forces me to reexamine an attitude or belief, causes me to research and learn, helps me to understand people and grow.

...I can write my own stories and I can write myself in.

Rejections are painful, but inevitable. They're every writer's rite of passage.

I have this theory that anything that happens to you that leaves you alive and intact can be used somewhere in your writing.