In honor of Oprah Winfrey: Even greater than the ability to inspire others with hope is the power to motivate them to give as much to the lives of others as they would give to their own; and to empower them to confront the worst in themselves in order to discover and claim the best in themselves.

First steps are always the hardest but until they are taken the notion of progress remains only a notion and not an achievement.

President Obama appears to me to have elevated and implemented the artist-activist concept to the role of empowered servant-leader.

Hope drowned in shadows emerges fiercely splendid–– boldly angelic.

Overall, my books represent a kind of shared communion and meditation with my fellow human beings... The books are also a part of what I call the great continuum of spiritual literary dialogue that I feel has been in progress since human beings first gave in to the urge to pray to their sense of something greater than themselves and interpreted certain signs or events or silences as responses to those prayers.

A poet is a verb that blossoms light in gardens of dawn, or sometimes midnight.

Michael Jackson National African American Art Examiner Series