"My fifth-grade teacher, who has since become one of my best friends, is a strong, powerful black woman. One day she said, 'Instead of calling and asking me for advice, try reading J. California Cooper.' The stories in this collection [Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime] follow common folk dealing with everyday issues. They're good people who sometimes make evil choices, and you see them suffer as a result. While many of the stories start off dark and depressing, ultimately, they are incredibly inspirationa"

"I like an audiobook. Quite often in an audiobook someone will read a story, especially the last line of a story, and I’ll think, ‘That’s not how it goes at all. Don’t you know anything?’ But Elaine Stritch, who’s a Broadway actress, recorded Dorothy Parker stories and she understood those stories. There’s nothing I would change. Not a thing in those recordings. They’re masterful. They never released them on CD or digital. They’re just on tapes and that’s why I’ll never get rid of my tape player."