I Put Headlights In Ford Vans. I

People Don't Realize You're Blowing Over Changes, Time Changes, Harmony, Different Keys. I Mark A Point In My Solo Where It's Got To Peak At Point D I Go To A, B, C D Then I'm Home.

It Is Hard To Find Romance In The Present Because There's Nothing Left To The Imagination.

It's The Same Old Story. Nothing In This World Happens Unless White Folks Says It Happens. And Therein Lies The Problem Of Being A Professional Black Storyteller - Writer, Musician, Filmmaker.

Music And Writing Do Fold Together In The Sense That You Have To Have A Certain Level Of Skill In Order To Execute Your Ideas And You Need A Medium. The Idea Of Improvisation Is One That Many Writers Fall Into, And I Improvise A Great Deal When I'm Writing, But There's A Structural Framework That I'm Working Around, And That Takes More Time Than The Actual Writing. Once The Characters Get To Yapping And Talking, They'll Move From One Room To The Next, And I Just Have To Make Sure That The House Is Built. That's Really Hard, That's The Kind Of Thing That Sits With You All Day Long.

The Basic Thing Is To Be Humble, And Pretend You're A Bartender In The Tavern Of Life. Don't Get Too Comfortable And Don't Really Listen To Anybody Else. Don't Stand Around With A Bunch Of Writers And Talk About Writing. You Know When You See Plumbers At A Plumbers Convention, Usually They're Not Talking About Plumbing: They're Talking About Whatever It Is That Two Men Happen To Talk About. They're Talking About Sports, Their Wives And Children. I Just Tell My Students, Don't Talk About Writing Too Much, Just Go Out And Do It. Find Out Whatever You Need To Get To The Mainland.