You see Martin Luther King is dead and Huey Newton is not. And Malcolm X is dead and Bobby Seale is not. And Vernon Jordan was shot. The thing that revolutionaries, or even people who want to claim they're revolutionaries, often forget is that it doesn't make no difference what kind of wardrobe you wear, and if you speak up about Black people doing better you just risked your life.

I tour more than I need to, more than is good for you. But it's my favorite part of music. I much prefer it to studio work.

I don't suspect that in many instances the artists who are dedicated in that fashion to the progress of that community are as well protected by the community as might be necessary.

I cannot afford to watch Fox News.

I was a piano player before I was a poet.

I think that the more people who speak out, and say things and take stands on positions that will better our community, the better off each and every other individual artist or otherwise, will be.

A lot of folks are so busy trying to get their groceries together that they don't have time to do research. I have time. Maybe that's the main difference.