There is always a very delicate interplay between individual actions and institutional conditions.

Does he have a double standard for black critics as opposed to white critics?

For me music is central, so when one's talking about poetry, for the most part Plato's talking primarily about words, where I talk about notes, I talk about tone, I talk about timbre, I talk about rhythms.

The challenge artists face today is whether to be an underground, unheard genius, or to dilute their art for the marketplace.

We are a democracy and we don't believe in just hunting down gangsters and killing them. We believe in trying to find the gangsters and bring them back for trial, and give them a trial under rule of law. That's what democracies do.

There is always a very delicate interplay between individual actions and institutional conditions.

It's so easy to begin to demonize someone you think is so far removed and as the demonization begins to expand, it ends up being everybody but your friends. After a while everybody else but you. That is a slippery slope that is so easy to slide down, and that's what is dangerous.