I have the capacity to express what I feel needs to be expressed. And I try to do what I believe in.

I was able to do The Saint of Fort Washington, on the relationship between two homeless men.

We have to be that wedge that drives the question and asks the hard questions

I try to find hope in struggle and resistance in small places as much as I can.

If we talk about literacy, we have to talk about how to enhance our children's mastery over the tools needed to live intelligent, creative, and involved lives.

Art is about the dynamics of the human experience.

It's important for people of color to link up with issues around globalization, food security, health, the environment.

What happened to Haiti is a threat that could happen anywhere in the Caribbean to these island nations, you know, because of global warming, because of climate change and all this.

Today, the media dictatorship is becoming a substitute to military dictatorship. The big economic groups are using the media and decide who can speak, who the good guy is and who the bad guy is.

When someone you know passes on, the only thing you can do is keep moving forward.

Freedom Summer, the massive voter education project in Mississippi, was 1964. I graduated from high school in 1965. So becoming active was almost a rite of passage.

Be the light of peace to drive away the darkness of hatred.

Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.

I often feel very guilty because of the time that I spend outside of my home and the little time that sometimes I have for my kids.

The most creative act you will ever undertake is the act of creating yourself.

I get a lot of pleasure and satisfaction out of giving pleasure to people through my singing; that's fantastic, but it's only entertainment.

I see the new Latin artist as a pioneer, opening up doors for others to follow. And when they don't open, we crowbar our way in.

Nature, the ultimate pragmatist, doggedly searches for something that works. But as the cockroach demonstrates, what works best in nature does not always appeal to us.

Most of my films seem to be about people bewildered by the world around them, who don't fit into it and are trying to understand it.

Learn to be difficult when it counts. In school as in life, having a reputation for being assertive will help you receive preferential treatment without having to beg or fight for it every time.

I saw it his eyes. I felt it when he touched me.