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I had been to the South many times and I thought I knew what the South was, but not until you live with people and live through their lives do you know what it's really about.

When you live in the South, you're constantly part of the civil rights movement.

Well, I've been politically involved for a really long time. Growing up in the segregated South, it was a very painful experience for me to live through the open racism of the time.

The statement that I made and that I think I will continue to make is that racism and bigotry isn't just relegated to the Southern region; it permeates the history of our nation. It's not to say that we haven't made progress. Obviously we have with our first African American president, and I never thought that would happen in my lifetime.

While I've said that there are plenty of things I dislike about the South, I can be clear that there are things I love about the South.

I grew up in the Deep South, where sexism, racism, and homophobia were and still are alive and well. I have early, early memories of words and actions of this type being very painful.

I think things like food, the food of the south is sort of the common tie that binds us all, Black and White, the sense memories. It's a very particular part of the country.

In the South, you don't say exactly what's going on or what's on your mind.

I travel all the time, but when I come back to the South, I see such progress. In a real sense, a great deal of the South has been redeemed. People feel freer, more complete, more whole, because of what happened in the movement.

I was born and raised in the South, which is pretty conservative.