I've learned that the worst thing a parent can do is ignore their children

Nervous means you want to play. Scared means you don't want to play.

They put me in a holding cell with a black kid and a white kid and a Chinese kid. We're the United Nations of juvenile delinquents.

One play can change your momentum forever.

My parents banned nothing, though the Christian fundamentalists in my tribe held book-and-record burnings every now and again. So, yes, fundamentalist assholes can also be brown-skinned.

Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.

If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing.