If culture was a railroad, I can see the tracks running from the Spirituals to the Hip Hop Nation.

Poetry is the most mistaught subject in any school because we teach poetry by form and not by content.

If you are sitting there waiting for someone to tell you how wonderful you are, you'll never get anything done. Women need to get over being women. I'm tired of that socialization of women; that we are always supposed to be sitting around pleasing somebody.

The trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans. I say, the trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans.

White people really deal more with God and black people with Jesus.

I’m a big fan of history—applying the lessons as well as the joys and sadness. If we pay attention, we would see how we affect each other. In terms of time, we are not that far from one another. If we were to look back a century, it would seem like a long time; but, if we look at it by decades then it’s only 10 years, and by generations it’s only five.

The unwillingness to try is worse than any failure.