There is a lack of leadership outside the Beltway, outside of politics.

Popular literature and culture used to reflect people's aspirations, pain, and passion. All those particular things are no longer available to us.

The civil rights movement didn't deal with the issue of political disenfranchisement in the Northern cities. It didn't deal with the issues that were happening in places like Detroit, where there was a deep process of deindustrialization going on.

One of the main purveyors of violence in this world has been this country America.

Today's cinema is a proliferation of comedies, which are in some ways creating caricature images. They're one-dimensional.

When you've moved past a point where you're just scrambling for jobs, you think about the things that you want to do. And the things that you want to do are governed by what you've seen, what you choose to embrace

In 1967, the students at San Francisco State invited the poet Amiri Baraka to the campus for a semester. He attracted other influential black writers such as Sonia Sanchez, Ed Bullins, Eldridge Cleaver. What emerged was something we called the community communications program. That's how I got involved; I got involved in a little play