It's still scary every time I go back to the past. Each morning, my heart catches. When I get there, I remember how the light was, where the draft was coming from, what odors were in the air. When I write, I get all the weeping out.

The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.

To those who have given up on love: I say, "Trust life a little bit.

Not everything you do is going to be a masterpiece, but you get art there and you try and sometimes it really happens. The other times you’re just stretching your soul.

My people had used music to soothe slavery's torment or to propitiate God, or to describe the sweetness of love and the distress of lovelessness, but I knew no race could sing and dance its way to freedom.

If you're going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can't be erased.

Look heavenward and speak the word aloud. Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud. Peace.