Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.

Personally I discovered that you could go through the academy as a young scholar, come out, and almost immediately have an impact on the academic environment.

Most people come out of their Ph.D. experience trying to prove themselves, trying to get ahead, trying to get published. You're scared everybody else is going to do your research and get your topic.

Welcome to prekindergarten! You will not die if you discover that there are more lines out there than just your own. In fact, you'll discover that you will have an advantage if you know more of them!

In fact when Sweet Honey was ten years old it was too big for me to run, and I knew it, but I ran it for another thirteen years because I couldn't convince other people to really do it. And this year, I'm not running it.

If we dwell in a community that is comfortable, then it's probably not broad enough a coalition.

The Civil Rights Movement also reaffirmed me as a singer. It taught me that singing was not entertainment, it was something else.