mrs. klinger. she called me up at the end of the class and told me, ellis, you are obviously a very bright guy. the work you have done is wonderful, but you are not doing the work in my class. why not? >> i said i am not doing the work because it is boring. so much of the work consists of answering stupid questions at the end of a chapter to prove you have read the preceding chapter. i do not want to waste my time doing that. in exasperation, she said what do you propose to do? i thought for a second and said, the purpose of the class is to determine my ability to research and to write, isn't that correct? >> she said more or less. i said, why don't you let me write? i will write something for you. why don't i write a research paper? i will write a research paper on the history of riots in america. my community had been torn up by riots in the aftermath of the killing of dr. martin luther king. she said fine, write about riots in america. for the first time in my life, i actually got turned on by e

mrs. klinger and gwendolyn brooks. what do you think would have happened if mrs. klinger had not recognized talent and gwen bloomberg's had not tried to do something about it? >> i think it would have done ok. i was already in a very good school. i was on track to succeed, one way or another. like a lot of people, people who come from very modest beginnings and do reasonably well in life, there were a lot of people who help me along the way. another important mentor of mine was jim hope, now the editor of "foreign affairs." he was the editor of the "chicago sun-times." he actually may be a columnist. there are few editors of big city newspapers who would have taken a 19-year-old kid and given them a column. >> the mentor others? >> at one point i read -- i ran a program that was based that uc berkeley. i do not like the term mentor because it implies you are a wise person giving wisdom to a lot of other young people. i certainly help when i can. >> someone listening to this sees you are doing audio, video, and print books and all that. what advice do you give someo