Why is it that when we had rotary phones, when we were having folks being crippled by polio, that we were teaching the same way then that we're doing right now?

It's easy to have faith when everything is going great. The real test of faith is when you're facing something that only your faith in God will get you through.

I want to be a children’s hero… Children need heroes because heroes give hope; without hope they have no future.

One of the things that sells music is when the artist is looked at as someone who's come up from the streets. Not just any streets, but the toughest, meanest streets of the urban ghetto. And that's called 'street credibility'.

Education is the only billion dollar industry that tolerates abject failure.

When kids know that you refuse to let them fail ... they don't give up as easy. So sometimes they don't have it inside, [but] they're like,'You know, I don't want to do this, but I know my mother's going to be mad.'That matters to kids, and it helps get them through.

Middle-class families know education begins at birth.