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.

Then everyone leaves, and you are left, each night, to your own devices with a crowd of interesting people - most of whom you don't know - sitting in the dark.

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 call the language of political figures, pundits and administrators "the haute couture of language."

Confidence is the mark of a hopeful disposition.

Probably the person who said the only color in Los Angeles is green was right.

I think what I am is a "convener"; I like to convene people around ideas.