I have no interest in romanticizing poor black people, having been one of them myself in our beloved hometown of Detroit.

Justice is what love sounds like when it speaks in public.

I don't worship the Bible, I worship the God who gave the Bible.

The writer's gift can make us see ourselves and our morals differently than our reality suggests.

He was not hip-hop's most gifted emcee. Still, Shakur may be the most influential and compelling rapper of them all, he was more than the sum of his artistic parts.

My ambition didn't grow out of nowhere. It was planted in me by a community that nurtured me.

Donald Trump amplifies the worst instincts. And his nationalism is really a white racist supremacist nationalism.

All of us should be much more humble and contrite when we point the finger at somebody else, because four more fingers are pointing back at us.

We can't exempt ourselves from the same moral calculus that we are willing to apply to others.

The language of faith is crucial because it affords human beings the privilege of intimacy with the ultimate.

I was very struck when Min. Farrakhan said if Jesus and Muhammad were here today, they'd be embracing each other. That's a tremendous message that needs to be heard more broadly.

Life has played some funny tricks on me and taken me on a wild ride. How did I ever get into this wonderful mess that is my life?

There is a house in New Orleans they call the Rising Sun, and it's been the ruin of many a poor boy and God I know I'm one.

For live you need a microphone for the snare and the high hat, the kick drum, a nice stereo overhead and one for the toms - you can get away with using four mikes.

Sometimes I'd hear things on other people's records and I say I wanted it on my records, but Leslie Kong said, no, it wasn't right and that it wasn't my style.

This was a "bad" example for U.S. slaves. Haiti was subjected to an embargo from the United States, which, along with many other countries, refused to recognize this new republic.

Just trying to do something - just being there, showing up - is how we get braver. Self-esteem is about doing.

A man's legacy is determined by how the story ends.

Cameron Diaz was so cute at the MTV Movie Awards when she pulled her skirt up and wiped her armpits.

The greatest things in life are not things.

Acting is the use of human experience with talent added.