White middle- and upper-class men have a longer journey to go than many people.

Leaping away from my mistakes has propelled me forward. It has great force behind it. It makes for great storytelling.

When an audience comes to one of my concerts, I hope they'll see themselves, somewhere, in one of the songs.

You can kill that man but not his song, When it's sung the whole world round...

Poverty without a people's government looks like hopelessness, but to see poverty in organized communities is to see relief-in-progress.

Like any art, the creation of self is both natural and seemingly impossible. It requires training as well as magic.

I'm not allowing my perspective to be dictated by the dominant culture.