I asked her if I was black or white. She replied "You are a human being. Educate yourself or you'll be a nobody!

Until you expose the cancer, you can't fix it.

I grew up in the church, and so I feel that God gave me certain things to do, and I'm lucky enough to kind of have figured those things out. I just don't want to die not having tried to help somebody else with what I know.

My black friends never asked me how much money I made, or what school my children went to, or anything like that. They just said, "Come as you are."

I'd like to do something involving jazz. But books are how I earn my living, and I'd like to stay with the horse I rode in on.

Be kind to the living.

If you're going to cheat and take people's history and you're not writing the Bible, you ain't really so great. But if you try to do it in a way that doesn't hurt too many people, then you probably can get out of bed in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror.