Something about the fact that an African American had, given the long sad history of our country, now become President - that was exhilarating.

I wish I knew as much about anything today as I knew about everything when I was twenty.

I was terrible student at Michigan, terrible. Because there was too much else to do. I was learning form too many other sources to go to class.

Large numbers of people are broken from the notion that the system is working for people, that the system is just or humane or peaceful.

I do think [Barack Obama's] strategy for re-election is so misguided. He's counting on the Republicans to self-destruct, and they might, you know, but they might not. So he might be a one-term president.

I haven't been silent. I teach, I lecture at universities, I write, I'm not silent.

There was always resistance and there was always a counter-narrative, but we were told all through the early twentieth century that black people in the South don't want an education, they don't want to vote, they're simple people, they don't want this, they don't want that.