When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. That's a terrible burden.

I don't really care who's doing drugs in the NBA as long as the scene isn't adversely affecting my team and teammates. I've known enough drug users-going as far back as grade school and the streets of New York-not to view them as pariahs or lost souls. I've certainly smoked more than my quota of weed.

I read that Hollywood wanted to film Fences years ago with a white director, but [August] Wilson refused. He thought that the director needed to have lived the culture of black Americans.

I feel like I've always been a full-time historian, but nobody knows it.

Lakers were able to maintain a certain level of talent and success and so were the Celtics. So after awhile it became part of people's sports lore...

Black people don't have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted.

Music is really something that makes people whole.