I saw my hometown burning that day.

I don't see how you can grow as a world without being able to get along with people. So many people is hating out there and it's not making a difference.

Obama, he wouldn't have been in office without what happened to me and a lot of black people before me. He would never have been in that situation, no doubt in my mind. He would get there eventually, but it would have been a lot longer. So I am glad for what I went through. It opened the doors for a lot of people.

I know and value what it means to wake up and be alive and to share my story. I'm so blessed to be here and to be able to talk about it.

Anybody can get bigheaded once they know the seat cannot be pulled out from under them.

I had to learn to forgive. I couldn't sleep at night. I got ulcers. I had to let go, to let God deal with it. No one wants to be mad in their own house. I didn't want to be angry my whole life. It takes so much energy out of you to be mean.

What I've learned to do is arrest my addiction - arrest it myself, so I don't get arrested.