As a Christian, I got something the world didn't give me, the world can't take away, so I find joy that can never be reduced to anything. So I come into classroom on fire. I'm on fire for learning. I'm on fire for education, a paideia in the deepest sense of paideia, trying to get young people to shift from the superficial to the substantial, the shift from the bling-bling to letting freedom reign in their minds and hearts and souls.

Reelection ought not to be the primary preoccupation of any politician. It ought to be standing up for truth and justice.

It's fashionable to be indifferent to other people's suffering

American mainstream is obsessed with black creative genius - be it music, walk, style - but at the same time puts a low priority on the black social misery which is the very context out of which that creativity flows.

You've got to be a thermostat rather than a thermometer. A thermostat shapes the climate of opinion; a thermometer just reflects it.

Courage is being true to yourself, true to a sense of integrity.

No community dictates to any individual how to live their lives. You can criticize and you can push but people freely choose.