Raymond E. Feist

You know, the only people of color I ever saw in my home were menials.

You know, they were nice people, but my parents didn't socialize with them.

You know, I think the first black friend I had, I was like 20 in college.

It's just a very different reality we find ourselves in today.

So understanding how that eventuated, you know, going, you know, we lost three giants in the last year here.

You know, we lost Elijah Cummings and C.T.

Vickers and just last week, John Lewis.

Now these are guys I watched on television when I was in high school and college, you know, doing the freedom marches and getting beat up and fire hoses and tack dogs and all that.

I saw that growing up and it made a profound impression on, on how I looked at things later in life.

And what I'm hoping is that, you know, people who are the age of my kids who are in their twenties are looking at what's happening today and, and we'll have a positive reaction to that and learn and grow.

That's all you can actually hope for.

So yeah, Baldwin is an incredibly important writer in American social history.

If you'd asked me 25 years ago, influences, I would have said the old white guys.

I wouldn't have said Alice Walker.

I wouldn't have said Maya Angelou.

You know, Octavia Butler, Ursula Le Guin, great women writers.

I might have said C.L.

Moore because, you know, Catherine and I had the same agent.

But it's the kind of thing where you've got to pay attention.

You know, you've got to learn.