 That bequeathment of love of books and the literary, how does that make it possible for you to move from the windowsill where you used to read to the world? Lovely question. It made it all possible because it's the work of imagination. You know, neither of my parents went to college. You know, my mother had desires to be an artist and was told by the nuns at West Catholic Girls that she couldn't be. Black people weren't artists.