I Swim In A Shaft Of Light,

I Didn't Know It Was Possible To Be Successful As A Writer, So I Wasn't Afraid To Fail.

Writing Is Not A Profession. It's A Calling. It's Almost Holy.

But Some Natives--most Natives In The World--cannot Go Anywhere. They Are Too Poor. They Are Too Poor To Go Anywhere. They Are Too Poor To Escape The Reality Of Their Lives; And They Are Too Poor To Live Properly In The Place Where They Live, Which Is The Very Place You, The Tourist, Want To Go--so When The Natives See You, The Tourist, They Envy You, They Envy Your Ability To Leave Your Own Banality And Boredom, They Enjoy Your Ability To Turn Their Own Banality And Boredom Into A Source Of Pleasure For Yourself.

I Understood That I Was Inventing Myself, And That I Was Doing This More In The Way Of A Painter Than In The Way Of A Scientist. I Could Not Count On Precision Or Calculation; I Could Only Count On Intuition.

I'm Writing Out Of Desperation. I Felt Compelled To Write To Make Sense Of It To Myself - So I Don't End Up Saying Peculiar Things Like 'i'm Black And I'm Proud.' I Write So I Don't End Up As A Set Of Slogans And Clichés.