I Write With As Much Objectivity As

I Wanted To Be A Writer. I Wanted To Say Something About Home.

I Had To See And Feel And Be With The Thing That I Wanted To Write About.

We Looked At Each Other, And I Could See In Those Big Reddened Eyes That He Was Not Going To Scream. He Was Full Of Anger - And Who Could Blame Him? - But He Was No Fool. He Needed Me, And He Wanted Me Here, If Only To Insult Me.

I Have Learned As Much About Writing About My People By Listening To Blues And Jazz And Spirituals As I Have From Reading Novels. The Understatements In The Tenor Saxophone Of Lester Young, The Crystal, Haunting, Forever Searching Sounds Of John Coltrane, And The Softness And Violence Of Count Basie's Big Band - All Have Fired My Imagination As Much As Anything In Literature.

You Learn From Music, From Watching Great Athletes At Work - How Disciplined They Are, How They Move. You Learn These Things By Watching A Shortstop At Work, How He Concentrates On One Thing At A Time. You Learn From Classic Music, From The Blues And Jazz, From Bluegrass. From All This, You Learn How To Sustain A Great Line Without Bringing In Unnecessary Words.