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I read a lot of W.E.B. Du Bois, who wrote 'The Souls of Black Folk.'

The thought of' the inferiority of the Negro is drilled into him in almost every class he enters and in almost every book he studies.

Somehow, I realized I could write books about black characters who reflected my own experiences or otherworldly experiences - not just stories of history, poverty and oppression.

There haven't been enough profound things written about what being black means and what a black character is. Nobody knows.

I can only tell you that when long soul-searching and a combination of circumstances delivered me of my last prejudices, there was an exalted sense of liberation. It was not the Negro who became free, but I.

It did occur to me that certainly African-Americans are not underserved in picture books, but those books are almost all about specifically black experiences.

I wanted to write a novel that would make others feel the history: the pain and fear that black people have had to live through in order to endure.

Black people were very angry with me for writing the book. A lot of people didn't believe me, or didn't want to believe me, and that used to really bother me. It was a very painful and difficult time.

I read every one of the books on the shelf marked American Negro Literature. I became a nationalist, a colour nationalist, through the writings of men and women who lived a world away from me.

In a typical history book, black Americans are mentioned in the context of slavery or civil rights. There's so much more to the story.