If we talk about literacy, we have to talk about how to enhance our children's mastery over the tools needed to live intelligent, creative, and involved lives.

I'm not so vain as to believe that my involvement changes anything whatsoever.

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

My theatrical background was in the great work of the South African playwright Athol Fugard.

New Orleans is a city whose basic industry is the service industry. That's why it makes its money. That's - it brings people to the city. People come to the city and experience the wonders of this extraordinary city and everything else. The question is that, how do we create jobs which are the jobs that have pay, that - living wages?

Democracy is about criticism.

I didn't elect [Barack] Obama because he's a black; I voted for Obama because he was the right person at the time.