Somehow we can't live outside the politics of race. There's something very deep in all of us, that is taught to us when we are very, very little. Which is the disrespect and fear of the other.

I love studying how people are. Not just what they're saying, but how they are, what they're doing.

Artists are the people that no matter what, pick up the pen, pick up a paintbrush. They take the time to translate what is happening to create something that resonates deeply with the rest of the people that are caught in the middle of their own reality.

Learning is a tunnel experience that makes us think more broadly.

I think some of our most talented people are not going to pick the arts as a way that they're going to spend their lives.

When I was a kid, my grandfather said that "if you say a word often enough, it becomes you." Thinking of that later in life gave me this idea that I could try to become America by learning the words of people from many aspects of the country.

I think we need leadership that helps us remember that part of what we are about is caring about more than the person right next to us, but the folks across the way.