My father lived to be 97 and played bridge every day up to the end, so I've got a 50 percent chance of living a long life like him.

The historical basis for the gap between the black middle class and underclass shows that ending discrimination, by itself, would not eradicate black poverty and dysfunction. We also need intervention to promulgate a middle-class ethic of success among the poor, while expanding opportunities for economic betterment.

Patriotism is best exemplified through auto-critique.

So many people of color who made major contributions to American history have been trapped in the purgatory of history.

My producers and I worked with these consultants and came up with seventy [stories] which we think are exemplary of the larger arc of African-American history between 1513 and 2013. We covered half a millennium, and it's amazing.

If America has a civic religion, the First Amendment is its central article of faith.

I'm looking forward to the time when we all look like Polynesians.