I speak to the black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition.

I do not trust people who don't love themselves and yet tell me, 'I love you.' There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.

It is better to control oneself, if one can, and not hit back. But on certain occasions, it is imperative to defend oneself. I don't think it's fair to ask anybody not to defend herself or himself.

Having courage does not mean we are unafraid.

We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate - thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising.

We need language to tell us who we are, how we feel, what we're capable of- to explain the pains and glory of our existence.

We are not just flesh and blood. And our hungers are not going to be set aside as just flesh and blood.