There's a lot of Americans, black and white, who think that we've arrived where we need to be and nothing else needs to be done and affirmative action needs to be dismantled.

He revolutionized music videos. Before Michael Jackson, MTV refused to play African-American artists.

It gets dangerous when you start allowing people to validate your work.

Critics like to build you up, tear you down, and then, if you're lucky, build you up again.

I don't like acting; not in front of the camera.

You have to do the research. If you don't know about something, then you ask the right people who do.

One of the great things about African-Americans is that we've always had this attitude: We make do with what we got. It comes from our ancestors being slaves.