Without compromise repression would be defeated. Just as some cancers feed on hormones, compromise becomes the hormone of oppression.

I'm called a folk singer, and I'm not too sure about that. I went about my life approaching music not from the point of view of a singer, but from the point of view of an actor. That's how I first started to sing.

Art in its highest form is art that serves and instructs society and human development.

You can be arrested and not charged. You can be arrested and have no right to counsel.

Where is the raised voice of black America? Why are we mute?

The USA has more people in prison that any other country, including countries with much larger populations. 13% of the population is black but 80% of the people in prison are black, mostly for soft crimes.

We [Americans] move about the world arrogantly, calling wars when we want, overthrowing governments when we want. There is a price to be paid for it -- look at 9/11. [That] wasn't just bin Laden. Bin Laden didn't come from the abstract. He came from somewhere, and if you look where ... you'll see America's hand of villainy.