Transcripts For CSPAN2 In Depth In Depth With Walter Mosley 20240712

Middle of the 20th century. Is been to world war. And to his whole view of himself in this world of community of potential has changed. He came back to southern texas and realized he could no on another because of what is born. And he and thousands of others southern black people from texas and louisiana have moved to los angeles. And we follow him as this kind of unofficial detective. He reveals what life is like in parts of los angeles had not been talked about. Host how did you come up with name. I was writing a story and a voice was speaking firstperson, and i was talking about this party that he was given and talking about how he was trying to pay money to raise his rent. And then he was talking about this woman who is in love with but she was in love with this other guy and then mouse comes in and looks at the person who is talking aces hey how you doing. And thats where he came from. Host what voices he supposed to represent. Walter what he represents is now the africanamericans, is one of the voice and the choir of america. Host did you sent out to use him as a vehicle for social commentary. Walter any good novel, delivering a great novel, but it any good it talks about any character, us to talk about that how that character is anchored in the culture and politics. If you dont do that, then you dont have a real character. It seems to me that everybody does that. What is different is not alone people were doing it with black male heroes. In doing it black male heroes, because of very strong cultural and social commentary. Not necessarily because that was my intention but it is because i was the only person doing it for quite a while. Host one review of your book rises about easy rawlins, once a black mans feelings are being honestly expressed in an detective literary form. Walter yup, that is true. As a traditional form. As this black character. Im not trying to take anything away from either of those things. Because otherwise, the people that im representing would be misrepresented. That is one thing i dont want to do. Host did you aim to set out to create this guy is a series. Speech of not necessarily, however, i had written in the book called gone fishing. It they were coming of age in the swamplands. All of the publishers said, is a wonderful book but not commercial. And if its a commercial because this is back in the late 80s. White people dont read about black people and black women dont like black men and black men dont read. As i kind of the notion. They liked the book but they thought they couldnt publish it. They were wrong but the fact that they were saying it made it true because they would not publish my book that i wrote another book. When i went to the publisher, they said this is great because they have black detectives now. But then they said, but we dont want to just buy one book we want to buy two. He said the decision was made with the publisher that was going to be a series. It was not my idea. But i liked it. Host you call him a hero. Any describe easy rawlins is a gun in one pocket and a chart using the other. Walter this is the thing. I think a lot of our heroes that are on battle fronts, is one of the battle fronts. They have to be willing to explode into violence and to defend themselves. But how they make decisions on whether or not an also to come to try to it. That is the point. In moby, the cook is throwing, off to the side and these sharks in his feeding frenzy theyre eating is. On the shelf selection them and says, angels are just sharks that have learned how to control their attitude. They dont have to be what they are. And i think that is what you have with your character also. Host where does a in blue dress take place. Speech of 1948 in los angeles. And it is an amazing event for change. Los angeles back man, 240,000 maybe 300,000 population and 100,000 people year are going to move into los angeles or Southern California from then until now. And the part of that was all these black people from southern texas and louisiana. This is an amazing amount of change. Or than anyplace else in the country. The city is building the ideas are building the culture is building. It the relationship between the races are building. It was a wonderful time. Host you say a world war ii veteran. What story are you trying to tell by making easy rawlins a world war ii veteran. Walter does an amazing change. For black people in america. It was for everybody. Like people, my father is from southern texas and louisiana. More my father story was he left to go to the war with about 100 people that he knew. And they were together pretty much all of the way through maybe ten or 12 of them died but most of them not from violence in the disease or an accident or whatever only god back to texas almost everyone he knew was dead already read in a realized that he was safer in the largest war in the history of the human race did and he wouldve been at home. And thats the thing moved him. Host when easy rawlins returns and he makes his way to texas. How is he treated. As he treated texas and housing treated in los angeles. Walter rationalism was institutionalized in the south. Different in different south but still institutionalized. For one thing is, there were no jobs that he could get. Whatever he learned and whatever his talents were, he was not going to get those jobs in texas or louisiana or tennessee or mississippi or alabama or anywhere else. So this is the first and probably the biggest problem. I cant make a deceit decent living predicates own anything. They cant be taken away from me. So that is the biggest problem. But still in los angeles, you have an extraordinarily races the Police Department. Said the police are going to stop you if you are seen in the car with a white woman. Mickey do pretty much anything they wanted to him. And he represents something that certain people want to hold down. And what theyre afraid of also. But theres a lot more opportunity inside of him. Any job you want. Really almost any job you what you can get. Nobodys ever going to take away your property for come for you. You never going to have signs and whites only. Host you talk about his vibration from texas to los angeles. This represents one of the great migration that is happening in our country. Why did you want to make the part of the story. Walter i am from los angeles. In the people and la, the black people in la are hard on Central Avenue where all of the major music of america fingers started there are moved through there. These peoples stories had much been told. So theres a giant part of los angeles history that had been left where nobody was going to talk about in the right about it. And you exist unless you exist and action. People like nonfiction but they dont usually pick it up. So it is better toe talk about it in a story pretty. Host devil in a blue dress. Youre right. All of them and john and half of the people that crowded room and migrated from houston after the war. California was like heaven to the southern negro. People told stars about how you could eat fruit right off of the tree and how he could make work. Life was still hard and nelly and if you work everyday, you still find yourself on the bottom. What work Race Relations like pretty you talked about it a little bit. Walter it was problematic Race Relations with the police. But also in the subconscious and unconscious of america, there was a notion for a very long time the best thing to be was to be white whatever that means. Was to be with his european culture. You are better even if you didnt work hard. You are better because of what you are. Not what you knew. If you are very smart, your ritual, or black or asian, people would look down on you. And they would make assumptions about what you could and couldnt do. I feuded better, and you should be able to do then there was anger and resentment. It was hard. Its so hard today but it was hard then for people to see what they were looking at without putting something on it that wasnt true. Host how is it for black men versus black women. Walter i think the black man, people are more afraid of black men, more afraid of the ring are also more afraid of what is happened to them. The response to women is usually not violent when something has been done venting abutment and is pretty select minivan kept out of the hero category. That is one of the things that i feel. Even in the greatest of black literature in america of the 20th century, the black characters work less heroes and more protagonist, people that Richard Wright wrote about almost anyone. He did not have the person to say oh, i want to be that guy. On him to protect me. Host you writing a book that something becomes an explanation. Walter i dont remember writing that sprayed was 20 years ago. But i think that people, want to hear it, i feel like i know that will yes, it is your labor being spent to make the videos rich. An interesting thing about that is is more true in the 40s and 50s the people of color suffered from working hard and not making enough. Today in america, everybody suffers from it. As wealth moves towards very small group of people that own everything, they dont care what color you are. They dont care, they will take advantage of you no matter what. And i think that americas response that come a lot of people responding to make a mistake in thinking it must be these other people who were not white. It must be their fault that happened. But is not of course. This false capitalism. Unchecked capitalism. Host s home is very important to him. What are you saying the conflict of ownership. Its not just in the easy rawlins series. A Small Business owner the bookstore nelly in 1950s this conflict of ownership. Who hasnt who doesnt and why isnt important. Walter if you go back to the beginning of america. The citizen had to be a property owner. Theres an investment, literal investment in the nation that you have assistantships with and i think is been true that if you are not a property owner, then your migrant. If your migrant, not that important. You cant vote. Many people dont Pay Attention to you. Maybe nate jerry and are you out of the existence. Their own property that cant be taken away from him. This is my land. Most people before the war were rural so that land means something. Whether or not your growing cotton, it means something. Just that fact that he has that little pot right there makes me citizen pretty. Host this is a mystery novel, crimes are committed. You wrote this in easy rawlins voice. I think what is wrong to have a man border. But the killer should be brought to justice but i didnt believe there was justice for negroes. I thought there might be some justice for black man if he had the money. Money is the closest to god that have ever seen in this world. Walter i wrote that. I thought of then and think it now. And i think that most people in america and when i wrote this book i think a lot of people thought there is justice. Injustices not based on how much money you have or who represents you are how popular you are. But benevolent people get it, they think yes, if i dont have money im not going to get a fair shake. If i dont have money and im black im really not going get a fair shake. Its a truism the black people in america and no the simpsons we came here is property. As time has gone on, many more people begin to understand it. The only understood in the appreciation of culture like the blues and certain elements of jazz. And also rhythm and blues. By this time is gone on, then went into literature and into general knowledge. Host was your motivation to talk about the Justice System and did choose the form of a mystery novel because of that as well. Walter i chose the form because i like mysteries. I read a lot of them. I like Raymond Chandler and others etc. Also started writing about it, the Justice System panama. Some like it was my goal to write it out. I think anybody reading my books would be able to make different decisions on things that have happened. He say why think this is right or wrong. So the fiction writer, im never try to tell you what you should think. I will tell you what easy rawlins thanks. Multi with the police who are stopping him thanks but im not going to tell you what you should think. Host i watch a book review of one of the easy rawlins book spring and the woman suggested to her audience, you really need to read the whole series. From beginning to end because otherwise you just pick up one book, you will now easy rawlins nose mouse or mama joe and she said, there be an index for how he knows everybody. Walter i like it that she said that. We as a means that they see a book they will read it. And you get real force of 14 of the brandnew like oh my gosh. I barely have time to read one. But another thing is you may not know the event that led up to easy rawlins relationship to mouse however, you do know how he knows nelson how he feels about him. And help mouse feels about easy. You know all of that because im writing a novel, no chapter. Host see you continue on and you obviously focused on easy rawlins and la. Your latest book down the river it takes place in new york with the former black nypd investigator. What inspired you to write this story and about this city for you are today in new york. Walter this was like a political spark that had me start writing the story. I am thinking about black men specifically. Baltimore baltimore maryland. And the man that people who got killed in san diego and one got killed in new orleans. Im thinking about a response to oppression. In a community that is usually not stopped about. But i will be walking down the street and up the police. Him and pushing him up against the wall and they frisk him and then hes just walking down the street and they letting go and then he walks a few more bucks and get stopped again. They make sure they never express that anger. Because if he does, then something bad will happen to him. If you add to that guy like he becomes a political activist or a journal, anybody who does that, makes movement, and get a target on the back of the front and on both sides. There is a target. Theyre very likely to be heard. What i wanted to do is create a detective who was a policeman. Even though we as black night, he was a policeman. So is not going to feel sensitive about these things. But as he investigates this case and he sees what happens, yet a shot of a doubt, he proves that this guy, he probably killed them. But they were definitely trying to kill him. And it was as far as he could tell, selfdefense. And what happens when you know Something Like that. And what kind of decisions are being made. This what i wanted to do this function is what i did. Host reminder viewers. Walter a political activist journalists in philadelphia who the police say that into a gun battle for families as he did not. Policeman or two died and sentenced to death. No for me, you kill somebody, then you should pay. With whatever the law as to say, you have to do. But if there are extenuating circumstances, you at least have to see them. Brewster of him was true for a lot of people here. Anybody watching this thing in new orleans. We see somebody on top of somebody in their knee is hauling them down. Then shooting him, you think will there something wrong with this picture. Policeman should never be doing that. Never. If it does happen, then you have to wonder what everybody is going to be thinking and feeling and how they are going to respond. And that is what the novel addresses. Host did you speak to mia minute you did not. So how do you then grab from that story or any story that you try to incorporate the writing. Walter stories are story. I think more than anything else, that was being interviewed, he lived in one complex and another one here. Public housing, two different gangs. When policeman came and started bringing the Children Together so the children, canales play football together and could slowly work some stuff out. One of the guys was asked, where children were playing, what you think about this. He says have amazing to me that the police are, im used in the police, and grabbing come of the foaming handcuffs and the beaming the term in jail. That is what my relationship with the places. This was like a general knowledge. Not just among black people. Mom should, chicanos and all of the different people and white people among in america. The Police Become people are trying to force you to fit inside in order that may not be conducive to your life. Because of that, you have to write about it. Sit in the river, even though some of these black guys, it is about complex america. An understanding that american it goes back to the issue about how much money you have in his protecting you and taking care of you. In him feels a certain way. Host john woman is your next book due out september. What is it about. Walter is a novel about a guy who is a historian. Stars when he was a kid and growing up, because the guy. Self defense because the gun. And it completely recreates himself. So he was, he doesnt have the same name, he does have the same birth certificate. He doesnt have anything the same. But he becomes what is done pretty bleak becomes a deconstructionist. His following him through this path of how he sees himself in the world around him. How he teaches. They discovers things about himself. One of the things he discovers see is a social path. That is helped him in america become successful. One of the things i believe, if there is something wrong with you, your social path of any sort, you probably be more successful in america. If you arent. Host publishers respond to or die ideas that are not in easy rawlins book. Walter they hate it. I stand going to write a book like john woman or a dream or all of these books that i have written. And someone i want to give him that but they say no. So i go to another publisher. And i sat if you publish this one already in the blistering is it okay. And they gets published in the mystery in the name of the book they said no, only mystery snow and then a return of the publisher. Its gone on forever. Host youve written a lot of books. To the characters in the book reflect people in your life. Walter is a hard question. Obviously in some way but i dont write about myself or people i know. I dont write about my mother and my father but i do write about world center our experiences and such. So the way but mostly no. Host whose raiment alexander and how did you come up with the idea of his character. Walter is an interesting character for me. I was a kid my father had a friend who he was just as crazy as mouse. He made a living doing was something so one of them was hijacking liquor trucks. So he would hijack a liquor truck and get a hundred cases of whiskey. He would bring against my father. Namesake hold this for a week for me. Of course my mother put away but then so be looking over niece and i have some whiskey year. Did he would follow the ball drink it. The navy another party would happen then there might be only nine or ten bottles left in the guy came back and he was a will, she only in my father would pay him for the two bottles. And that guy, was in a cracked game in the barber shop and got into an argument with a guy and he said, you owe me a nickel. The guy said i dont under ou anything. You are going to pay me i know the guy said no. So he killed them. Just shot him right there in the barbershop and he was arrested. And sent to prison for murder and spent the rest his life there. In a way mouse, leno i was too young to remember the sky but never ran, i dont think about him and remember him with the story, start mouse. And mouse is a very different character but it comes from that story. Host the woman asked if you would make a book, maybe write a book or two about the sky. Walter raymond is a pure social path. He longs inside of the system for most of the things that he does. And it every certain set of circumstances happen. He will go wait outside of the box but only then. Mouse, lives outside of the box. Your social path living outside the box, you nobodys going to use was not interesting. Ive never had a story in my head about raymond by himself. Host is Jackson Lopez on. Speech of he has a lot of my characteristics. Both very smart, and really like the sedentary intellectual pursuits. Reading, writing, thinking, debating. Jetblue, he knows everything about computers before computers knows them themselves. I like writing mothers characters because its rare. So many things are not written about blackman. But one of them is while this guy is a genius. He can do anything. He is also really a coward. Hes afraid of his own shadow and shadow goes a great distance bring is completely frightened of it. I like that also because not everybody has to be big and strong and courageous. His small and scrawny and afraid of anything. I like that character. Especially because he is also a genius. Host is a computer genius. Walter i was a programmer not a genius but i was a programmer. I like kind of giving him that thats. Host thinking one of the books im a but jackson loop that he only kept the bookshelves everywhere to some frequency made it. He only kept books he was only going to read it twice. Walter elected because its kind of a way to look your bookshelf. You have 12 books you got there on the top. You have it looked at them for 12 years. Then at doing anything in the show but you know that if you give them to the used book store, to a library or he put them outside in the box, people will pick them up and read them. And this will books are for. There to be read. Not to sit there on the shelf. Host why is reading important pretty. Walter think reading is important because its the closest thing that we have two active thinking. I love music and film movies and so with that. But those things are much more passive his rule. But when youre reading, we are actually creating the images that youre reading about in the thought and the ideas and systems of thought. So when youre reading that, your mind is getting exercised that it doesnt get doing anything else. Other than working in learning and work from experience. Being educated by somebody close you like your parents or boss who is concerned about you. Host is her message that youre sitting about education and the importance of your reading in your books. Because easy rawlins realizes he needs to read more read he said send wanted to drop out of high school but you need to read with me every day. I explained to me what you read in your own words. As a character where. It. Walter there no competing with jackson. If hearing it, and beat jacksonville anyway. If you didnt start off liking him you will end up liking him. I think its interesting to support the mind is a really important share in that we have to Pay Attention to that mind and theyre only certain ways that we can do it. So much in talking about especially black men in america. The british, the primal, the really sexual in all these things. All the things im happy about. But also i like reading. Because history of the world is interesting to me. I have always known in my life really intelligent black men who could read and discuss and play with ideas of other people. That is really important. I think everybody should be writing about its. So the only thing i think. In order to be a writer coming after me. I would say no not sure thats true. The greatest novelists in the lineage of the west summer. He was blind and illiterate. But he knew how to tell stories. I think that telling stories more important for a writer than reading of the stories. It doesnt mean that reading is an important just maybe ill make you a writer pretty. Host maybe what do you read. He wrote in one of the librarian and easy rawlins, comes into the library. Theres a black woman and shes reading katrin arrive. She has a scowl on her face answer, deal with what she said i do but i can imagine some black kid renting a kid reading this book. How are they supposed to relate. Walter is true. Host action rise whining about his life. Walter man if i had money i would be happy. I dont understand why anybody would kill themselves if they have all of this money. Did a nice big house. As the notion. I dont have any limit on what you should read. This would you like and what you dont like, who knows what it is. Not defined by your gender or your race or your class. None of that. You might love reading charles dickens. Okay fine. You should read what you love to read read and if you open a book and say while the story really draws me in, and read it. Its george elliott, fine. I dont care. Host another character that is in throughout the series is enemy. Bushy. Walter enemy is that woman who has the strength and the weaknesses of black women had to carry. Since they got dragon over here. Children they cant keep or control. Men that they cant keep or control. Clive said they have to hold together whether they can troll with this around them or not. The strength of the defines the world around them. This little black women of course. She is the ideal woman. In this life most mouse and easy rawlins cluster. She loves mouse more. Hes more of a problem. Then easy rawlins will never be but you can help we love. Host about mama joe. Walter think a lot of us have agreed that moment. Without it, you become less because society defines assist less. When i believe they can reach a place that you cant understand gives me, is like owning property because understand something about the world that you couldnt possibly understand. Whether it is true or not does not even matter. Host after double a blue dress, readers will find deep into the political and moral carpets of los angeles in the early 50s the blacklisting racial tensions, toiled. Whats were those of the time. Walter is interesting because my mother, was born jewish. And her family had come here. Around 19 oh nine or 1910. In new york and then they migrated to los angeles. These people were people who understood the black people in america because he had almost exact same experience in europe. They had lived in ghettos and people hung them. People burned them and called them at different race. Excluded them from society in general. But a lot of them because of that, were part of the revolution. There were a big part of creating it. One of these characters guy was living in los angeles news decided to give secrets and vegas has to everybody. And because of that, he was being run down. Wasnt somebody who actually had done what he thought was right. The government thought it was wrong. And he got very involved in what was happening with that guy. And his daughter. Host what is renovating, what is happening at this time in our country in la. Walter thing. We hated the russians the late 30s. And then pursuant stall and realize that hitler didnt really like him, we made it deal with him and they became our allies a lot of people supported russia and russias really heroic battle against germany. Within those same people became a great target. So anybody who had belonged to a group and maybe a maybe been friends with somebody who mightve oneday dunnage. They were really impressed by mccarthy. And by almost everyone. And those people were the first i think socalled White Americans and begin to understand how you could be singled out, tortured, imprisoned, kept from having jobs for something that you believe in. Host and how is this impacting africanamericans at this time. Walter this is a very famous ones, i think there were problems. But if you werent successful, it really wasnt, it was going to call in a janitor with the communist manifestos pockets. Didnt get any kind of political currency over that. So a lot of us, were like yeah right, because they would be long because nobody is listening. If you have an important job, an important position, if what you said impacted Many Americans and any kind of cultural political impact, then you were treated poorly. Most for people it just slipped right over. Host was Race Relations shifting at this point. In the early 50s. Walter the thing about america and the Race Relations, there are always shifting. They never liked, get solved read is a shift thing. But still, yet people went running dressing and white. Even though it is even make sense to say white. In europe, there were no white people. They were britains election different races there. Really, it just goes on and on. And their spanish and the greeks and scandinavians. The scandinavians didnt think they were the same race as the greeks. We knew they werent. Even though the greeks and romans didnt think they were the same race. They came from america and the oppressed, they wanted to kill the indians because they owned the land. It was their springs and they needed to get rid of them in the enslaved black people to build the land. So because they had socalled red of people to slaughter and socalled black people to do a lot of the worse kind of labor, they needed something race. They said were white. This only way make sense. Is if you have blue eyes or green eyes brown eyes looking hair or body shape for people are different. Different physically. But so what. That for me, is whats most important. But the socalled white people, we are a race. They have a common history. Is not true. In these people over here, are Something Else. Unconsciously, the seas with people. And stays with life. So its like an possibly better laws were saying that is a white person thats in my. Because both of those things are not true. Theyre not truly by who know truly white people. There are various shades as we relate to each other. So to say things are shifting and changing. While things get better and people make laws, we do all kinds of things. Give the president. But still underneath it, there is a problem they can always us with with the case in jews in europe, fall backwards pretty. Host i want to invite her viewers to call in and join us in the conversation. On this special in depth edition. Two oh 27488200. To a 27488201. Make our way through most of these books that mr. Mosley has written. Is also written nonfiction as well. So we would love for all of you to join us in this sunday afternoon. I asked the question because in the release relations are shifting because he notes in the book they see more black man of authority time. Black cops. Walter piece recognizing what you have to give up in order to move into that level of the story. He does favors for people in his community. There is nobody telling him who you can do favors for or how. He makes every decision about what hes doing on a casebycase level. Thats it. And he can do what is right. I think he also recognizes if people has problems, they have to give up some of their choice. The become something for him. Things shift the because we still believed the basic truths of it. It will never get solved. Host the backdrop of the book is the church. During this time, what rule does the church the preacher play conflict americans lives. Walter in the entire world, the more oppressed you are, the more religion that takes a primary role in your life. Because you need an absolute form of organizations to help further time in this world or beyond it. You also need people who are organized around use of everybody will eat and get food. This is helpful. It doesnt always happen. In the black community, we were shoved together so tightly and so segregated that the church was really one of the only ways to deorbit as i organize. You have no representation outside of it. So the Church Becomes one of the strongest forms of us being able to take care of ourselves. Host how did it influence your life. We are parents religious going up. Walter he wanted to be. But no. One time we really discussed religion we hoped it was true but we decided it wasnt. But in the same time my parents worked were for the board of education los angeles. Its in the semi to a private to baptist cost 9 week together. Thats a lot of money then. Listening to this Baptist School because it was all black kids in all black teachers that taught africanamerican history in the 50s. They really wanted this for me. The most important thing for a child in education is that your loved. You think will did they learn their math and english. But first they felt loved and cared for. They filled a part of things the outside of things they knew that wouldnt happen to me in the schools in los angeles on Public Schools listening to this private school. Host what impact that avenue. Walter im turning me but i dont know how. Honestly. I was never religious. I never believed in anything. We would read our bible verses and go to the church now again. I loved it. The biggest impact by your parents. My childhood friends. That was very important. I was tell people the novel is bigger than head. And it the perimeter of the entire novel, then sign novel. True metlife two. There are many things that have impacted me and changed me and maybe know i am. Thats how difficult for me with those wins are. Host another aspect of this book, and it carries out through the other serious britains alcohols it alcoholism. A lot of the characters in the book are struggling with addiction. New road and wanted to books, liquor shines when the light hits it. Precious things like jewels and gold. This is a living thing capable of anything that you are putting in whiskey is holding you. Walter a lot of people say dont have to be like an american thing thats. I need to self medicate. I was really like, i drink so much when i was young. Sixteen like 21. I almost died twice. In a quest for 40 years. Atlantic quit again. And i started again. Not mistaken i just want to die. I just liked it. But i knew that it was a danger because what i can do is give it can destroy you. And has the potential to destroy you. And also as, the my father drink every day. Im absolutely sure because he drank, there are People Killed karina pretty sure that. Host 20 say that. Walter because he was enraged. It is really proud man. Very successful in anything that he could do pretty do almost anything. Hes very social. As good leader. As a black man in america and all that time, he was treated as a black. He was talk to town to produce pushed aside for people who was not as good see. People are like that. Theyre angry. A lot. Host alcohol. Walter is about to go see this guy i knew was going to give them trouble. His drinking mightve killed him. He never drank out work but when he got home, to blow off steam. I think that is so true for so many people in america. And how do we live lives. And organized. Another way human beings should live. The whole idea, i wake up everyday to certain time and they go off to work in my kids go somewhere far away we educate them and i work really hard. May quite enough money to a sure a good life. I make enough money to go from day to day today. This not the kind of way that people should live. Eleven the society where you create enough that everybody has a little something. That the future is assured that the maintenance protections of their. And some people will have more and some people work harder. Some people will bill the second story in the house. But i think the idea that they had that song, i only sold to the company store. I think that is true for most people in this country. Youre really just deeper in debt everyday. A little deeper in debt. All of the song. Another day older and deeper in debt. A lot of people have that. Let people drink alcohol or smoke stillbirth to opioids. It dulls the pain. Host why did you quite. Walter because i ended up almost dying. My arms are plate glass window. I will spell down the mountain. I thought i better stop now. I do like drinking. I dont want to be drinking myself into oblivion. Host 12 steps to a political revelation about addiction how it relates to political oppression. Walter a did. And thats book, im trying to say the system tells us these are the realities of your life. This is how you should be. At work and at school and relationships. And to your than yourself. But i think there is a whole other step of rules that we need to have. I havent read that book in a while but i dont remember the steps but i do know the system out there does not really care about us in general. We have to understand that. We have to control that. Host whats the system. Walter and ends up being people with the most power. And ends up being the people who paid the politicians to give them the money to me in a situation of control. I donated like 10000 to Something Like a candidate. Someone asked me to write it so i said okay ill do it. So then, same person can read said, we are having lunch with the candidate. This is this week. And theyre ten people given 10000 to the good to have lunch. Going to be able to talk to this person. I went and we talked. I realize, what would i get up and give a hundred thousand dollars. What did what i do forgive a million dollars. My power should be no more than my vote. That is the ideal america. My power is my vote. New publisher votes. But if have a hundred thousand dollars and if your corporation are very rich person, that hundred thousand dollars doesnt mean anything. You just give it. That person knows, as long as other people who vote, but im going to come back to that person give me hundred thousand dollars. Im not saying anything new here. The problem with america, or people confuse democracy with capitalism. There are two different systems. The both fine. They need to be separate. Money should not enter into something. They should take money for me but to taxes and stuff. But not me donating or helping or letting them use my airplane whenever i do. So the java give them after they get voted out. Host so theres a lot more to go through with your books a lot more topics to bring up as well. But less listen to what reviewers have to say as well. Listen to steve who is in richmond virginia. To see good Afternoon Party to. Guest good afternoon. I have been waiting for the longest time to at least say hello to you. In one of your best readers. My questions, and a wonderful opportunity to listen to you under the be able to talk to you. You gave much effort to get into other lighting styles like in the alternate history. With things of that nature even things that are more is sciencefiction. Walter i have written 14 books of sciencefiction. A written at least ten literary novels. In b24 mysteries five or six books of nonfiction. Im working now with a fellow writer Gary Phillips trying to develop a western series. We will see if anybody in hollywood wants to buy it. Have written erotica. Ive written that lot of genres. Its not like ive written almost every genre that i want to write in. I havent written a romance novel i dont really want to. I think if you look at the different books, is sciencefiction. One is called 47. His about us as slaves on the plantation in the 1840s any entrant meets this alien. New forms of bond with the sky. The college on. And how his life goes forward. Host were going to talk about some of those sciencefiction books. Here are some of them. Always outnumbered, always outgunned, future land, and 47. The wave. And in 2009 yearold the long fall, in 2015, and sunny silver box. As we talked about, is not sciencefiction but your new book, down the river onto the sea. Lets hear from eugene. Guest can you hear me. Thank you. I didnt tell you mr. Mosley, thank you. You know for so many years, a man some of your books and you had always been an inspirational person to me because i always wanted to write a book we share the same last name. So i look at your book on the shelves, and just inspires me so much. And then about to say although fictional, the truth is really coming out what you are putting out in what youre saying through all of your novels. And the most important thing like really inspired me was my father was wearing, congressional gold medal, give me a basement which to write something the night felt to me as a great substance theyve been going at it ever since can tell you mr. Mosley, if you like moving towards the downstroke with the bibliographies. I just wanted to thank you your inspiration all these years. Brings back my childhood of living and visiting my sister during the summer in la in the early 60s, late 60s. But my question to you is have you thought about making a movie and getting a director like spike lee, john singleton, Something Like that . Guest i would love to make more movies. Its not an easy thing to do, no pun intended. I try, i keep trying and doing Television Shows or films and i get to a certain point and then it doesnt work. I figured there is like a ninemonth window with a window in a film. I wont start with black picky but it would be good. Of course it isnt my choice though its hers. Host how did the devil in a blue dress that made into a movie . Guest a lot of people interested. I finally met a woman who just started in the business at that time. Donna knew the right moves to make and at the same time Carl Franklin was looking for me so we got together. It was a perfect moment. Just looking for another. Guest we did for hbo but not when i was an associate producer what do you think about this, and i learned. Whatever he would say i would say thats good because he was going to do it anyway. Host the calls mentioned black betty. White butterfly, epicenter of these two books are black women. What is happening at this time with black women and has that changed . Guest black sexuality has always been a dominant moment in our lives and its really hit him. I think black women have often experienced the fact that their sexuality has been taken away from them in the general culture so you see like hairspray for blonde people like what is that in appreciating beauty is appreciating it based on other culture and plays switch by most white women didnt fit either. But at least you could pretend. I think that black women have always had the weight of the community on their shoulders and children. They were responsible for children. They were responsible for a kind of life that came easy to the rest of america in the 50s and 60s. And of course in my work, black women have a prominent role. I never say that im speaking for them. The great thing about literature in the 60s on up at least through the 80s black literature was dominated by black women say you had alice walker, Tony Morrison and many others, gloria naylor, they really controlled literature for a long time but that ended in the 40s and 50s and now we are trying to figure out how to share it. Host in white butterfly, i was on the warpath against women and all the men i knew and didnt know were killed. Guest i dont remember writing that so i dont remember what i meant. It doesnt sound good. Host you also talked about not learning to respect women. Guest that is a big thing in the community was there were camps between men and women. Men were angry at women because women seemed to be asking them to do things in a way that was humiliating to them and women were angry at men because they didnt seem to stand up for what the women needed to keep their home and hearth together. But at the same time great love. You have a guy that says its better if im not home because at least you will get public assistance. Im with you, you cant get public assistance by leave and you can. A lot of people also do get along really well. In most of the conflicts and most of the world most people dont hate each other. Its groups of people that get angry and are valuable for people listening to them and not the reality. Host what are your thoughts or what are you trying to say in the spokes of marriage and marriage in the black community . Guest you know, i dont know. I wouldnt say that if somebody asked me to comment, i wouldnt have anything to say about it. Marriage is an interesting institution and hasnt really evolved with the rest of our cultures. Before world war i, knowledge double that for a century all the way back. World war i is doubled and kept getting faster and faster. Knowledge doubles every ten months now i think is the term so this is why everything we do is almost obsolete before we get halfway into it because now we are doing Something Else and now we are doing Something Else. I used to drive a taxi and have a mendelian but that doesnt work anymore. And those are just my old. I think that marriage in america in general to send have the same place that it did a century ago but its hard to change that notion. Its hard for black people and its hard for everybody. I would never say im trying to comment on the institution of marriage because before i finish the sentence, it will have changed. Host the two from james in philadelphia. Good afternoon. Caller good afternoon. I met you at the university i think around 2009. You were on a panel and you signed a book for me, future plans. I dont know if theres any other writer like you writing today. The way that you move through the genres it is ironic the first caller that said mom Science Fiction. I read many Science Fiction, the wave coming and ive been enjoying some of your cross channel to oblivion series. But they stepping stone and the gift of fire, i loved those two short stories. The other thing i often wonder sometimes how what mouse do with some other fiction. Maybe you can get together and see how he would deal with hawk. Guest he is a bad man but i think mouse would give him a run for his money. [laughter] caller im a great admirer of yours and you may be the best fiction writer writing to a . Guest thank you so much. I appreciate that. I will keep up with me. I love to write genres and create characters that i think have a strong place in the world. Hall does certainly. Also i want to write about heroes because i know there are so many coming out of our community and they need to be heard and paid attention to. Host we have a comment from one of our viewers that wrote in i believe you once said while you cant write a decent column to save your life you continue to write them and read the poetry of others because its important to your writing. Guest its one of the basic requirements for writing fiction. Poetry does everything. This metaphor, simile, condensation, music, choosing just the right words not five or six that one word that says what you mean. It brings things together in a way that is abstract but feels real. Poetry is the most important thing that we need to know and understand. Host by . Guest its the original language. If there is one language for everybody that started in the beginning it would be poetry because that is the way we understand the world. We see material they are thinking something beyond that and they bring those two things together. Host i have a question i would like you to ask were you encouraged tfor youencouraged tn book that your publisher, friend, or was it your idea . Guest nobody was encouraging me to do anything. If i could only right that i would stop a long time ago. Host told the viewers who may not have read, a little bit about the book and what its about. Guest its a book about the woman who was living a hard life and was hard to set in that life. I was thinking that it would be kind of a tragedy, but i realized that somebody who loved so much and is so connected to her world, that would be a relief and her survival was more tragic and that was the whole purpose. Im liking the new one. You get more of an insight into mouse. Rather than working to do something and he works with felix jones, another series and you begin to understand what it would be like if you had an extraordinarily successful black man, criminal or not use how hard his life is and in seeing that you also see how powerful. As a matter of fact, easy finds out how powerful he is which he never really knew before. Host explained that evolution. Guest at one point, hes talking to jones and says have to always been trying to lie to me and mistreat me and try to give me a . And he sayadhesives listen, i wr mess with you. You are the most dangerous man in los angeles. He says what are you talking about. Im talking about your friends they are the most dangerous men i know of. I couldnt cross any of them and they are all behind you. It becomes like his sociability in his world has given him a great deal of power, it doesnt give him money or this other stuff but it does give him the power which is an interesting thing. Some people yield greater power but are not successful in their capitalistic endeavors. Host you right on the first page its 1961, the world was changing and black men in america had the chance to be a man for the first time in hundreds of years. Guest yes. At that point, we are entering the 60s people are getting an education. It used to be in the 40s and before you could study for a phd at harvard they would never give you a phd. There was always something being held back and in the 60s, the opportunity was there. The problem is it was still harder to achieve your goals and they had to be smaller and you have to act in a certain way. Its like madame curie. They ask her to give back one of her nobel prizes because she was having an affair and she said why should i. , all of you have a fierce. Im keeping my nobel prize. There was the expectation on her as there are black people in America Today but certainly in the 60s that holds people back. Because even then it means something different. Caller how are you . Caller thanks for the good word about poetry and congratulations on your novel. I wanted to ask if you could talk a little bit of your writing habits like do you write in the morning or the afternoon or at night, what are your writing habits . Guest i can do that. Thanks a lot, clarence. Its nice to talk with you. I see creation like when i see novelists, but creation is in your head its your conscious mind. It comes from a practice not unlike psychoanalysis. To say you spend every day, me, evermecome every day to shoot te hours writing. Its like free association, things are coming up, im writing demand not in order in the story, but im writing them. Then the next morning i write and the next morning i write. Thats 22, 21 hours in between the times of writing all this stuff is happening in my head i have no awareness of this when i get up the next day there are new things that have come to the surface. I will write this and this and and it goes on and on. And ive written almost every day for the last 28 years. Every once in a while if im sick or have to get up at 3 00 for an airplane, but every other time i wake up in the morning and write fo right for probablye hours, sometimes to death every day and i find every day i write is the day i get deeper into my understanding of that larger story that im trying to tell. Host when you are not writing, how are you collecting your thoughts and stories . Guest when im not writing it is happening in the back of my head. And its hard to explain. Everybody i talked to about it, but just give it 100 days. Every day write for an hour or hour and a half and you will see the way you think and the way that you are organizing and the thoughts come together it gets better and better and happens over the years. How that reflects the personality. Guest not on purpose. To say what they used tha to bes kind of a thing about consciousness. Its like you already have the structure you just need to fill in the data. 5foot 11 or seven for two or three folks one. Red or blue or pink bits that you see and experience all these things kind of floating around in your head and right for say three hours and the stuff that youve written kind of reaches out to these things in your head you havent really thought abo about. It translated in the back of my mind and when i started writing it came out. Host tallman cole porter virginia. Caller hello, mr. Mosley. Me and my family are great for fans of yours that is a good question because i can see it and i did ask them and they said no. Host why, what was the reason . Guest i just didnt know. Guest they would be the same age but they have their own careers doing other things and doing some very interesting movies producing some acting further out into the world. I dont hold anything against them for doing it, but i think i might go back to the beginning to try to make a film right now start from the beginning. Its almost 30 years ago now. That is what im thinking right now. Caller i may have in common im not a writer at all. About a character i was just wondering what the queue right him and how he evolved it seems hes lost a distillation of some of the other characters. Guest a publisher came to me and said it is a collection of stories and i started writing this story and had the title about a young woman trying to get revenge for that framed her father for something and got killed. You dont know that at first she almost succeeds in destroying him but she doesnt empathize because part of the thing is shes going to blame them for her death. But it doesnt happen. His whole life he realizes he had been doing the wrong thing and now has to turn his life around and start to do the right thing. He doesnt run into the same kind of troubles so it is a different view because the relationships in the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s and i enjoyed writing about the current. I am writing a short story called at the heart of darkness. Caller hello, can you hear me . [inaudible] a jewish plantation owner he was a member of the confederate cabinet secretary of war, state and general of the confederacy speak to guest me and names is a very troubled thing. Going back to my studying of the civil war, maybe i am, but why dont you tell me. They go through an auction in new orleans and on black jewfish slaves i would tell you about the first time i was asked that question and how sad it made me. She asked me the same question, how Much Research do you do because i want to research my character and i tried to figure out how i could live in the end i couldnt. When i finish writing a book i will go through to make sure things are not from. I wanted to make sure the cotton gin already existed when im writing the story, and it did. As a rule, section is more today, not historically but today its more about characters than it is about things. I am not trying to educate people about things. Im trying to talk about how people emotionally deal in a cultural and technological wor world. Host i want to read this part before you respond. There is still oppression. This is now the early 60s and one of the characters we talked about response to the comment that perhaps a young talented could make it like Louis Armstrong did and she responds with you have a strange going around the block. You know how they eat up our m man. Host this is true for anybody if you are born poverty. Everything militates against you succeeding and if you accept that, then you will survive but if you have dreams that may be beyond, so much more will be against you. There is already a law against people that its so much more a lot of people die from it. Even people at the pinnacle of success. She had a diabetic attack and the hospital wouldnt take him so he died at 39yearsold. Sometimes people will just close the door. Host what is the emotion that you are talking about . Guest it could be a lot of Different Things but for me it is the heroism of the character whos going to try to get beyond where he or she is to make it to a better place which is going to help a whole bunch of other people no matter what, whether they succeed or dont succeed ive been an admirer of yours for a number of years and have been struggling as a retired social worker to immerse myself into the struggle of other people for a number of years and i see that very much in your work. As a writer i find its as much important if not more so which records have been the most influential to you . Guest such an interesting question i would start by saying if you have a young black woman that says who do you read and first people usually dont know who she is and then they do know alex walker, my angelou. Was reading people like donald and then old books like robert louis stevenson. And if and when i grew older i loved the idea of telling the same kind of story in different ways. We are going to pick up on this but they are a little over the halfway mark in the conversation on this sunday afternoon so we will take a short break. Hang on the line if youve dialed in and keep calling him. We are going to take a short break and come back to the conversations. We want to show you as we go to the break the trailer from devil in a blue dress, 1995, directed by Carl Franklin. We will be right back. Lock and white. My name is ezekiel robbins. To see the production of the company. He thought he knew how to play the game. Until he stepped into a world where there are no rules. Hes looking for a woman that no one is found. Getting deeper than he ever expected. Surrounded by liars, seduced by power. He is searching for the truth. From the Academy Awardwinning producers from philadelphia and the silence of the lambs, Academy Award winner Denzel Washington, devil in a blue dress. A look now at some of the books being published this week. Im going to read to you from the western front. Im doing this because this is the book when i was asked to find something to read it had the mood i feel not only new york but all over the world and i hope it becomes clear from this small passage. A few of us were allowed to get up and i am given crutches to hobble around on. I cant bear the books as they move around the room, his eyes following with a strange book so sometimes i escaped to the corridor and then i can move more freely. On the floor below are the headphones and double amputations. On the right side of the wings are those with wounds to the kidneys and intestines. Heres a man realizes for the first time in how many places a man can get hit to th too closet of type this, their skin turn pale and only their e eyes move. Many of their shattered limbs hanging free in a the air. I see those that are constantly full, they show xray photographs of completely smashed hip bones, knees and shoulders. A man cannot realize the above there are still human faces and this is only one hospital, one single station. There are hundreds of thousands in germany and france and russia. How senseless is everything thag that can ever be written, done or thought when such things were possible it must be the culture of a thousand years couldnt prevent thicouldprevent this std being poured out, thee torture chambers. Im a young man 20yearsold yet i know nothing of life with despair, death, fear into superficiality cast over the abyss of sorrow. I see how people are upset against one another and silenced, foolish, innocently. I see the weapons and words to make it more refined and all men of my age here i and over there throughout the whole world to see these, all my generation experiencing these would be. What would our fathers do if suddenly we stood up and came before them and proffered our bill. What would thlook at the expects when the war is over x. Through the years it was our first calling in life, our knowledge and life is limited to death. What will happen afterwards and what shall come endoflife . [applause] host we are back with our special edition talking with Walter Mosley about his writings of the books that hes done with fiction and a reminder to all of you you can join in the conversation. 202 7488200 mountain pacific to see the 27488201 we will get back to more of those phone calls. We were just listening to you reading from all quiet on the western front. Guest it is a novel in which you understand the war from the pedestrian and foot soldiers plaintiff view. There is a place in the middle but theres been a terrible war and then she goes home for a furlough for five or six days and how crazy that is and he comes back again but also one of the main characters everybody elses dying, starving, influenza. Host their eyes were watching god. Why those books guest they were all very beautiful. She has such a lyrical voice. The first one was at a time where women had no end of difficulty coming out and being important. In america general women were considered kind of secondclass and black america was even worse. And james baldwin, his understanding of the passion that underlies the politics not only of being black, just a gorgeous writer. Host links and hughes, a soldier and the quartet. Guest t. S. Eliot isnt my favorite personally but his writing is gorgeous. The poetry is beautiful. Its a speculative fiction novel. Word after word he pulls you in any way that is amazing. Host your favorite scifi book the city and the stars . Guest he understood things when he wrote that book putting it like a billion years in the future. He understood things people didnt really start getting into until decades after he wrote the book. Its amazing how they think, move, respond. They just thought they just grow, but no, they actually have an interesting intelligence. Host dude does inspire your Science Fiction writing . Guest each one i started with danny dunn when i was like ten. Host how and why did you decide to write a sciencefiction . Guest its interesting you can get somebody like jewels who defined the following century with his inventions and novels that later became real. When i would look at things like foper instance of star wars, the original 77, there were no black people. I dont think there are any people that didnt have blue eyes. Its like a racist to dream there is only going to be one kind of people, so i think it is important i have to imagine myself in the future, other people in the future, so i get back to, the idea of creating a future that reflects the political, social and technological advance that i can see following me in that direction. Host is go through some of the Science Fiction books youve written the wave, what is your favorite Science Fiction youve written . Guest the most recent i was able to imagine the entire universe there was a moral response to the creators so the machine withdrawal symptoms heard. They kind of unite to protect these aliens. It was so much fun to write that and view people that seem to be hopeless were powerless but to give them more power than anybody else could imagine. Guest its not an idea that i have. I usually flipped out on its head. These incredibly alien minds that dont understand why they would say that. I like doing that more. Host you touched on this a little bit, but any of the books pose the question on our humans unique and valuable and significant in the face of the larger universe. Guest its usually all of the. The house is formed and we just dont get it or understand we think everything surrounds us. Either it is better than us were less than us or it hates us and that really its nothing like that. If we can accept more, larger, deeper, different, then we can go to those places. Host what does that evolutional click . Guest it depends on whats real and whats not. Usually in my books, one person decides they want to help the exodus to earth and the one person might save the potential for the humanity in the future. Host the books often and with a set to destroy most of humanity merge stepping stone. What are you writing here and talking about . Guest one thing thats been in the end of the book is a group of people that create a virus that is supposed to kill all people of color. One alters the virus likely and it kills anybody that isnt at least one eighth black but it turns out theres all these socalled white people that survived because a lot of them were one eighth black they just didnt know it so that was kind of fun to say so me surviving means i have to recognize that im part of the people i was trying to kill. Host lets go back to calls. The lane in st. Louis welcome to the conversation. Caller thank you for facilitating this most appreciated outstanding program. And thank you especially for sharing your art, humor and expertise to on this Easter Sunday program. Your words are truly a godsend. Ive enjoyed your comment but i would like to switch to flip a little bit. I found it very enlightening. I love that you read the character names and stories. I find it so humorous. I love the way that youve stimulatethat youstimulated my. I can go on and on. I wanted to ask about this quote because it was deep. The main character, i forgot his name, i was on a long list for the library for the buck. Guest king oliver . Caller yes. Following them proves to me that i am a civilized man. And the way did that gets me thinking. I live in the inner city of st. Louis. Youve been here. Ive seen you. I follow the rules, too. That was such a powerful statement. It wrapped up everything to me. I hope i am on the right track. Were you saying that in order for us to live and be proud of this experience we have to embrace the rules and standards for the roles that we must hold them accountable . Guest absolutely. One of the things he is following the rules for the Police Department and for order in new york but slowly discovers not all of the police are following the rules. That he finds himself alone and in following the rules he is going to be breaking the rules. Following them hes always going to be breaking another set of an spooking rules. Host jennifer and oakland, you are next. Caller fellow. I love cspan and watch it. Today my question is kind of a trivial question but im wondering if it has any significance and i love your work. Guest it doesnt have significance besides the fact that i loved it. I saw it at an airport and said i love that ten and ive never seen people wearing them so i bought it from its domination. I dont own a domination, im not thinking of them, but i do love the spin. Thank you. Guest caller thank you. My rating is another thing loyal african gold into very small. It was a collector of african antiquity in new york. Host lets go to teresa and fairborn georgia. Caller hello and thank you for accepting my call. I first want to say that i just love you. I have to say it and there it is. I also love your writing. I always feel like im right there with the characters. Could you or would you offer suggestions or advice for dialogue for pair enters . Guest sure. You should probably look at the books this year i write my novel. I will say some things i will say one of the Things Writing in general and writing dialogue specifically when we write that is one experience and one of the ways we do things. Its just we put the words down and they are not necessarily reflective of our aural experience. When i finished writing a section of the novel at some point i sit down and read the whole thing into a tape recorder. When you read the dialogue out loud you say nobody would really talk like this or that or thatr thats greatfor i need to splitd or make it shorter. A lot of the critiques that you can make of the writing you could do by yourself just by doing it out loud. Host anita and oaks grove. What state are you in . Caller illinois. Host go ahead. Caller hello. I cant tell you how important this is. Thank you so much for the brand you are wearing first of all. I remember my dad saying this is my 50s brand. I always see that and remember. Remembered. I wanted to say as a black woman that has been writing all of my life for some reason or another, and i see that you are going to put a spoke for writing that one of my questions is everyone says you need to get an agent, you need to self publish. How did you get that on the paper and into someone, how does that happen . If it is good writing people will read it anyway if it is ancient rome or romans are ethiopians or 10000 years in the future. They like the writing or the story, it is about humanity so dont worry about the subject. The book that i wrote out ten or 12 years ago but there are a lot of different ways to go about it. You can look up some publications i think that l l abc is one organization that helps with selfpublishing but if you read a book and you like the book you think your writing is what that book was you can call the publisher and get to the editor would ask who 81 which agent represents that writer and call them and say i think i have written something about this other book you have represented how do i get it to you . They will say send us a chapter and we will take a look also taking courses in writing classes you meet other people trying to do that information you may not need that class but you need to meet the people there are a variety of ways. Ronald rushing said he met you and was featured at the black writers conference back in the day around 1997 he was wonderful Toni Morrison was there i also met the great gwendolyn brooks. Those conferences are good because of different lectures and panels and you talk to people and you can pick up things you may not even know youre learning at that time. There is an area across from Grand Central station they teach you how to pitch to the agents it is called thriller fast and they share a lot of information. Covering the black writers conference march 22nd to the 26 airing next weekend on book tv. Good afternoon. Caller to the young commentator thats working with you i watch book tv often on weekends. I never have called in before after years and years of watching but today i was watching and you came up and i was fascinated and i was determined to talk to you. I feel so blessed today so the question is what do you do recreationally . Like fishing . Or the market on the weekend . Or work in the flower bed . That is my question. Thank you very much. I draw. I really enjoy drawing. Im bad at it but ive have been doing it for 50 years and it is a kind of release. Just being out in the streets with people i like to go to events. Last night i went to play that was a lot of fun a friend of mine was in the play i enjoyed that. But one of the interesting things what i love doing the most is writing. I love it. Anything that has to do with writing or other people writing i do that a lot. What about cooking . I would cook every day as a kid and i cook every day now. Its like something that you do like Drinking Water if you are dying of thirst but if you drink it every day anyway its not that i enjoy it but its something that i do i like to cook i like how foods work. I love the places like San Francisco and new orleans i love good food. And going from putting a meal on the table five minutes after people are hungry. I am a gourmet cook. Out of it might be different than anything of ever cooked before but that is a housewives relationship to cooking. My job is to feed these people not to aggrandize myself as a cook but make sure you are eating so it has to be something good for you that you like enough to eat. Cleveland ohio. Caller hello. That such an honor to speak to you and i have been a dedicated viewer to cspan over 20 years. Mr. Mosley you are the voice of the voiceless when i saw the movie idm near cried speaking to the heart of so many people and i think of the movie angelas ashes and how he rose above the irish in that plate i just want to say god bless you and keep doing what you are doing what think of Toni Morrison and alice walker and Norman Mailer and sanchez and carlos santana. He feels miles davis and john coltrane. And i see you are also. You give us inspiration. I am an artist myself and i love to cook. I love to grill. It brings happiness to see the food enjoy it not have pots and pans around me. But on this one occasion alice walker was was on and she said when lady called in and said you gave me a hug. I was hooked on drugs now i am a counselor the woman started to cry and the host started to cut her off and alice and lettuce on let her finish speaking and she said you hugged me like my grandmother would and you gave me inspiration to get up off the ground and start walking like a real woman. I was doing bad things in the streets. Alice walker immediately said to her your tears are the window washers to the soul but your writings are the window washers to our hearts thank you for all you have done all these years. Thank you. I appreciate it. Cspan always outnumbered, tell us about that story. I will the first i want to say one thing to him. I know most of the people he listed. Not everyone that almost everyone i have met i do know Sonja Sanchez pretty well i was at Grand Central station with her one day shes about 4foot 11 and some very tall young black man in a uniform 6foot something caesar had walks up and says ms. Sanchez when she says yes . She takes him by his hand and he starts talking about his sister she was pregnant and goes on and on and does she want to have a baby . He said yes i think she does so she wrote on her phone number and said i will be in philadelphia tonight you have her call me and we will talk. Thats what i respect she is so extraordinary and a wonderful individual shes there for the people and her poetry is there for the people. Its a wonderful thing and you have wonderful poets but the peoples poet is yates who wrote about what the irish were experiencing and if you write about what dont you have more from that reality. What were you thinking when the caller was comparing you . To make its hard to think that about yourself because you go through life in a pedestrian kind of way. You know your flaws but other people dont know them so well. But again is something my work tries to do. How do you do that in always outnumbered . That is about an excon committing a terrible crime spending 27 years in prison now hes out in trying to be better because a young boy who also has committed a terrible crime he finds the kid and the kid knows if he wants to help this kid become a better person he has to become a better person himself. Its about that life its really close to the streets and close to home its impoverished and not like some little kid who becomes a billionaire someone trying to live day to day in their own reality. The main character is struggling to be a better person and to overcome his own nature which is pretty violent and angry. And his own guilt for the things he has done. So he learns to be a better person i have to be a better person but to help my community be better i have to forgive myself. Toledo ohio. Caller thank you for taking my call. I would like to ask a couple of questions. What do you think of james and also the chair of the 9 11 tragedy deserves examination . Thats worth bragging about . And what is your limit on george bushes library in texas . Thank you for taking the call. I dont know the answer to some of those questions but the general interpretation is 9 11 and that i find i think most events that happened in the world deserve selfexamination to say what is my part in the world in general . How does my representation, taxe representation, taxes, people, r inform what is happening in the world so in a broad sense it vilifies people so certainly those people deserve to be vilified and fought against and struggle against. But its more important for me to figure out after i come to the conclusions, war on terrorism, how is my everyday actions contributing to the pain in the world today . And if i can assuage that pai pain, can i make a better world . Sometimes you have to fight and kill him blow up things that will make a better world. May be safer, and achieve revenge, but in the end we have to make a better world that helps rather than hurts. Olivia from california. Caller hello. Thank you years ago i cant remember which book of yours it was i was so distressed i wondered what happened to the characters so i wrote you a letter and you wrote back is that had patients so i waited and i appreciate that but i want to talk about always outnumbered and walking dog we just spoke about that to another collar people are still asking for recommendations and i recommend socrates for the people in my mind to grade american philosophers of the 20h century and i tell people to read those two books and i just want to thank you for everything and especially those characters to such an extent. Thank you there is a fourth one which is okay that follow socrates and i really appreciate that. Why did you leave the question out there mouse could be dead . Im writing like freestyle i read really i write and write and mouse gets shot. I never thought he was dead but anime takes him out of the hospital to mama joe if anybody can raise someone from the dead it is mama joe. She does. Is just a moment because mouse is so powerful inside the books i had to get rid of him for a while so easy could stand on his own and i could figure him out without mouse. That worked for me. Following that bookies he tries to figure out if he is alive or dead. Why is that important to the character . Because it allows mouse to be there for the audience its easy to make decisions thank you. But i first heard of mr. Mosley as a mystery writer a number of years ago in an interview and i was curious if we checked out devil in the blue dress did they give you a boost of your recognition as an author and writers cracks and for the next generation of writers . A lot of people like my writing. I have given books to all kinds of people all over the spectrum between president orrin hatch and that it was the news people so whenever i would go somewhere and asked people for a newspaper or magazine will say yes i will talk to him but also all around the world people did that im not sure how many books it sold probably Denzel Washington sold more books but regardless of that the journalistic world paid more attention to me because of clinton. Which have sold the most . I have no idea probably that when i would imagine i cannot think anything sold more than that but it could be another book there is a lot of those books. Spokane washington. Caller thank you for taking my call i have been enjoying the program and i appreciate this opportunity. I love talking about your books with customers. Primarily it brings those different types of communities and you help us to understand people that are. But at the same time manage to write about the human condition and it covers everyone so we can all relate as well. You mentioned a couple of times where your ideas come from. Right for yourself enough for the reader if there is a balance in your own writing . Thank you for working in the independent put one bookstore. Thats really important for literature and good gigantic bookstores are good to have amazon is good to have but there has to be that personal relationship because people are talking about books that they like and its very important. Who is your audience . She was much older and used to babysit was a wonderful woman she made great hamburgers and hug me while we are watching monster movies i imagine im in a train talking to albert. And hes in all kinds of fish on trouble. So now the audiences sitting behind us overhearing a conversation that is how i figure it. So imagine the best possible light to illuminate my story which is alberta and im sure they will like it. You are you talking to a little scarlet when you write about the riots . This is easy rawlins with the principal at the school he works at and explains to her about the riots when you out if you come down to the six fourdoor harlem every store has been friend and beaten and jailed if you have kids it will be beaten. No matter how far back you remember they are there waiting for you. You dont know that woman you dont know that man but it doesnt matter. You have been here before but you are broke and the people doing this to you since your mothers mother can remember. Yes. Exactly. I was talking about the riots i remember them quite well. The original ones and 65. I remember the experience. Other people didnt understand the lives of the people what was going on in their lives. Why are you violating . Everything is fine. And then at that moment everything was not fine. But nothing had ever been fine people were lynched, burned, enslave lynched, burned, enslaved, beatn and killed and excluded from all kinds of jobs and spaces my father used to tell me and the fifth forward the first five nights it was only for white audiences only the six night a black audience could come i would say thats terrible he said yes but it didnt matter because every night after he finished playing for the white people he would come down to the fifth ward and play for us all night long. Just even the fact that you have to do that it makes you happy and angry and everybody was angry. And part of writing the book was to explicate the anger. To the riots change anything . They changed a lot. Back then nobody was aware of the anger of black people because they werent in anybodys life. Ever. After the riots, somebody would say does everybody feel like this . 90 percent feel like this then theres another 10 percent. So that caused the country to think we have to change and it brought a lot of change. Not enough but a lot. And now things are different in america. People Opening Doors that had been closed and then to make a good difference in america. But only kenneth came to talk to him and City Government and he left the next day and a reporter said what do you think los angeles can do to make things better . He said with the representatives you have . There is nothing you can do and he just left. He had been fighting for rights in mississippi, alabama but los angeles . He threw up his hands and said im leaving. What is your approach. [inaudible] Martin Luther king said something once to a friend of mine. They were talking and king said when i look at the news and see whats happening in the world come i think we are trying to integrate ourselves and then we have to become friends. The understanding of the duty that we, all americans have , is really a very special thing. Caller can you hear me . Yes we can what is your comment. Caller i didnt know you were a humanitarian. How did you do that . I would like to be apart. Okay. Im a little confused mr. Mosley sounds like a humanitarian. I certainly am. I am a humanitarian but i exist in a certain place that and to be how wonderful and great and how these black man are so be a writer. Building you have to do to be a writer is get up and write every day for a couple of hours. Do that for a year and a look back at what you wrote in figure out what you are doing. Cspan you were a Computer Programmer when did you decide i will write full time . I keep saying that i started writing across the street from where we are sitting right now the old mobile or youll building a Computer Programmer working on the weekend. I had been writing this program called rpg i was tired of it so i decided to write a sentence that says on hot sticky days in southern louisiana the fire and swarmed. I knew that was a good line i have read a lot of books and i knew it was fiction because i knew it was louisiana and i have never seen a fire and i was making it up. So i will try to be a writer and i kept trying and i finally made it. Who inspired you . No one. When i was a kid, when i did that i was 34 years old. Before that i never thought about being a writer but my dad was the greatest storyteller they are worried. And unconsciously my father said this is what you should be. You should cook and tell good stories. Mississippi go ahead. Caller hello. I would like to know have you ever thought any of your writings the playwright or theater and he had several of his writings and so forth . Dont you look at that at the theater . Called the fall of heaven produced in cincinnati and st. Louis and chicago. People like them. Its a difficult world i write plays but what i see and what i write are very different right now im trying to create a musical for devil in a blue dress i have written a very talented issue on dash davis is working on the lyrics. Do you have a timeframe . As soon as possible we are working on it. We will see we have a couple of meetings on it this summer. Nashville tennessee. Caller im 73 years old my home is in mississippi i was a great Literary Center for the delta area. And carter was the owner of the Delta Democratic times and that was the newspaper in the south i read a couple of your books the last days call me gray as a great collector of books i cant get rid of them but i am inclined to the interracial relationships over the last decades in particular of my history being from mississippi. So as a writer becomes extremely well known. Does mr. Mosley feel like there is a responsibility major or minor for writers to present themselves into the so she oh political events . Does he feel that just besides individual influences that are positive or negative to inject their personal feelings into these events the way it is right now . Thank you. [laughter] that is an interesting question. Im very politically active. The way riders would be. Im not running for office because i know better but i try to comment on things but i would never tell another rider what they should or should not do how they should talk i would never say that because riders do what they can do. They are writers. Great i was on an Internet Television show recently, six months ago and there were four journalists and me. I understand how that got done but we were all talking everybody was talking about fake news they were mad trying to convince people that fake news is a madeup term that we are real journalist. Finally i said but you have to understand im a black man in america i have been listening to fake news 400 years. If there is any legacy that trump leaves behind him it is that there is fake news. I am right there with that. Im not sure if it is against him. Defined fake news to you. Walter cronkite for years talking about vietnam as if it was a sensible war that we were winning and therefore a good reason and that the enemies are a threat to the United States and then he just says i have been saying this stuff for years but its not true. Its not real. We are not winning and they may not even be our enemy those that are supporting our dictators. It was nice to hear a moment of realism after years and years of lies basically. One of the characters is a soldier who fought in vietnam. Is he that voice . Or what voices he . I think hes an interesting character because he comes from a black military family that goes all the way back to the revolutionary war. They have been fighting and part of the army and have done all this stuff. He is that the very end of that. He has floundered to say the thing we are so proud of is the biggest then we have committed. He doesnt even know how to deal with it. It is a wonderful moment to have somebody say i have been wrong. The hardest thing to say. I thought this and said this and done this. He fights in vietnam and comes back what is the difference for those that fought from the United States and vietnam . Even feeling patriotic. Here we are an interesting thing one of my dear friends is the black publisher named paul coates a wonderful guy in the sixties the head of the panthers in baltimore. And he has done a lot. When he went to vietnam and said we are against it quick c set i thought i was john wayne. And he is fighting for liberty and he was just the views of that notion while he was there and he came back and as politics came up he joined the panthers. He was a librarian and i was a publisher. And i think a lot of people, especially young men want to believe what they are doing in wartime and they want to believe the anger inside of them which is natural to have the purpose and the patriotism. And then find out thats not true its true for mark and all client a quiet on the western front for germans and russians in world war ii. So in every war there is a moment that you feel this was wrong. I made a mistake. Sometimes not. The American Revolution the civil war im not sure if you thought they made a mistake. You said mohammed all the stream act but i think i think his ability and his physical genius and a great sports people have. And with that so show political genius but when he stood in front of any College Students and a lot of people with the nation of islam and said im not going to vietnam because no vietcong never called me nigger. Thats poetry. Because its so true. I will go kill somebody who has nothing against me . For the people who have everything against me . And really, as a kid, i know now he helped for my thinking but i dont think i knew that then. When that happened i was probably 14 or 15 years old. And you are talking the way mohammed ali was talking. I didnt think it was him i would say im not going because first i dont want to get hurt or shot or killed or anything and second i have nothing against those people. Why would i want to shoot a guy in vietnam . Your on the air. Caller thank you for taking my call. First of all thank you for the comments you made. I have two questions. So how do these characters compared to what happened 20 years ago and what is happening today . And any other question is and Abraham Lincoln that privilege comes with power. Almost every man can stand adversity. I just need to share your input and i also tell you today you change my life that you were at a Computer Programmer im an engineer but i dont want the station that often something pushed me to listen to you today. And keep on going. The first thing about what happened 20 years ago and today and the germans lament that the vietnamese world. So we began to think this so i forgot the second question. White privilege. Its different at different times. There was a time when white people could do anything. That was then. Today, white privileges a longago faraway dream that a lot of socalled white people are unhappy about. I used to have everything. I used to work hard and do this and retire and take care of my kids and everything was fine. That has been taken away and it is true. What has. We never had it. But White America i did. White privileges more of a fantasy or a longago memory than a reality. There is rich privilege for sure but i think that is all there is to it the rich have privilege and everybody else thinks wistfully about the past they may have had in some time or another and they would like to have that again. Make america great. And capitalism that created it and destroyed it . Yes. Both. And then to kill all the natives on the land and then chores. And that will take a bunch of slaves and you dont have to pay them. May have nothing that you have everything. Thats the early parts that more and more of the wealth is in the hands of the very few. And that wealth is based on labor if it is finite and so is wealth. And it should be 80000. But if a person has 100,000 or 200,000 or 1 billion or 200 million, that has to come out of the pockets of all the 80000dollar people the more that wealth combines in the middle and aggregates their then the poor import everybody elses and the water reflects that. But here nobody has enough money. Would it be different if we had a Different Institution of socialism . Im not sure socialism is. I dont think thats true we have to be aware of the system of wealth. Money, banks come interest i. E. China or a monarchy and as soon as you have printed money and somebody is making profit then you have capitalism we have to be aware of the systems that we work in and control it such a way that not all of the wealth is coming out of our pocket. And its not white people taking it from black people this the institution itself and we have to have more control over that. You have a explanation of everything so far so what would it be . And how did they influence your writing before . My last meal . Gumbo. No question. Sassafras and thyme leaves and fried okra. Definitely i would hate it that is my last meal but i would love that. I forget the second question lets go to new york. Caller good morning. Mr. Mosley its a pleasure to have you in my house today. Thank you very much i was introduced to you like to speak more at that when i read it as soon as i read i want finished it i read it again. Because it was so enlightening because it transcended race and everything in those to describe the characters but i always said that should be translated every language in the world to give me such a perspective and to bring people together. Thank you for taking my question. My Favorite Book probably is blue life in a say that just because i have read that again. But why i wrote it is that i am not in any way a religious or spiritual person. Im not. I would like to be but im not. I believe in a materialistic pragmatic universe with one exception. I believe in the soul. And the notion of the soul. I feel that i have one. My thoughts and personality and i wanted to write about it without any confusion about religion or spiritualisms i wanted to get to a place in bluelight someone is walking back and forth considering who he is and i think i got there in that walking back and forth i wrote the whole book in order to write that and how it transforms people into superior but not necessarily better parts of themselves. Thank you. Thats why i wrote it spent the second part of the question was drinking and how that influenced and how that influenced your writing now that you dont drin drink. I did drink and i didnt write back then that i didnt drink most the time i did it right but then they started writing and now my writing and drinking stay very far apart if i drink i will not be writing. Because i get foggy. I know a lot of writers who seem to be held in emotionally somewhat. That is never been my experience. Richmond virginia. Caller hello. I enjoy your writings i am a baby boomer. What helped me to connect with my fathers generation. So looking at the generation so differently so how could you cannot do that generation and then write stories . I just saw them as older people. That wasnt my experience. My experience was as a kid born 52 really they wouldnt let me go outside by myself. My relatives were so interesting telling these wild stories about world war ii and one day they went down to galveston and a party all night now is the next morning they are driving back to the of the guys are sleeping you cant even see them the other is in the front and then another car comes up behind them and says i think weve got trouble. And then he hits his brakes they have to stop and them both come out the front and the back with guns. And then they come out with their guns. These are the stories. Their aspirations and dreams and humor. Why werent you allowed to go outside by yourself . You or three or five or seven. Im here. Get back in here that i would listen to more stories. What about your mom . My mother is an interesting case she loved me deeply but had a psychological thing she could not express affection she was incredibly smart. She graduated at 15 or 16 and graduated Hunter College at 20. Really smart really independent. And married one of the richest guys in los angeles at the time. And she was with him and then took a job as a socialist. And she told me once i met your father and i didnt realize him. So i left him and married your father. In the late forties early fifties to leave the wealth to marry a black man that took a lot of character and a little craziness also. That the attention to what you are or what you want. And to see the thought of not seeing color . And the idea the notion of the color lines with the colonization tactic. The already built. They didnt have time to say i can pick and choose my labors. I have a book coming out. Im very excited about that. He really liked the episode i wrote so im excited about that. Like i told you double in a blue dress with a musical. Im working on a lot of Different Things to, and im writing the next installment on the structural revelation, lots of stuff. Host thank you for our conversation today. Next on booktv after words, University Professor Jennifer Eberhardt offers her insights into implicit racial bias. She appeared on after words in march of 2019 and was interviewed by democratic congresswoman val demings of florida. After words is a Weekly Program with relevant guest hosts interviewing authors about their latest work. All programs are also available as podcasts. Welcome to todays segment. Im representative val demings from florida and im honored to be here today with doctor Jennifer Eberhardt whos done some fascinating work in the area of human bio