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

His headstone said FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST But death is a slave's freedom We seek the freedom of free men And the construction of a world Where Martin Luther King could have lived and preached nonviolence.

We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.

You must invent your own games and teach us old ones how to play.

If you're a writer, the answer to everything is yes.

Photographers direct the eye toward a particular object. We who write, one hopes, are directing the heart and the soul.

If you were a pure bolt of fire-cutting the skies I'd touch you-risking my life-not because I'm brave or strong, but because I'm fascinated by what the outcome would be.