When Michael Jordan quit I suddenly found myself without a sports hero.

I have just come from a couple of raids where we had a very lively time and some of them had to pull their guns. I found it necessary to punch a few sports myself.

When I was in Birmingham I used to go to a place called Redwood Field. I used to get there for a two o'clock game. Where can you make this kind of money playing sports? It was just a pleasure to go out and enjoy myself and get paid for it.

Some people train for certain sports and I want to train to be able to hold a super heavy electric guitar and carry luggage around myself because I always have to have 7 000 pairs of shoes. Who cares about sports?

I find interesting characters or lessons that resonate with people and sometimes I write about them in the sports pages sometimes I write them in a column sometimes in a novel sometimes a play or sometimes in nonfiction. But at the core I always say to myself 'Is there a story here? Is this something people want to read?'

I'm an underdog person so I align myself with those who seem to be not considered valuable in polite society.

I did it to myself. It wasn't society... it wasn't a pusher it wasn't being blind or being black or being poor. It was all my doing.

Having soon discovered to be great I must appear so and therefore studiously avoided mixing in society and wrapped myself in mystery devoting my time to fasting and prayer.

I should tie myself to no particular system of society other than of socialism.

I always challenge myself. I get out in deep water and I always try to get back. But I get hung up. The audience never knows but that's when I smile the most when I show the most ivory.