I think Americans generally are not used to working very hard, in terms of working for the collective. I think in our country we have taken individualism to its farthest reaches, possibly.

I think that wealthy white people would like to have a country that resembles the Fifties, when all the minorities were tucked away in ghettos and paid in very low wages but on the surface it was very bright and shiny and free and the rest of the world would look on it longingly.

I think 'The Color Purple' is so bursting with love, the need for connection, the showing of the need for connection around the globe.

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.

Americans are generally very self-sufficient and I think generally averse to pretension, just as I am.

No, generally I think influence is used as a nice word for plagiarism.