I want to be remembered as someone who tried to bring the story of our ancestors to the broadest possible audience. I want to be remembered as a man who loved his race.

In America there is institutional racism that we all inherit and participate in, like breathing the air in this room - and we have to become sensitive to it.

The story of the African-American people is the story of the settlement and growth of America itself, a universal tale that all people should experience.

The first step toward tolerance is respect and the first step toward respect is knowledge.

The thing about black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up.

In Ethiopia, the black people became Christians 1700 years ago, hundreds of years before Northern Europe turned to Christianity... And here, most of the saints are black.

We can revolutionize the attitude of inner city brown and black kids to learning. We need a civil rights movement within the African-American community.

I want to be a figure for prison reform. I think that the criminal justice system is rotten.

Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.

Wherever you go in the history of America, there have been Black people making contributions, but their contributions have been obscured, lost, buried.

Well, certainly one of the ironies of the success of affirmative action is that the middle class within the black community no longer lives within 'black community' by and large.

Go ahead and believe that no one shines brighter than you. Become amazing, and be happy.

Mistakes are the growing pains of wisdom.

What is history? An echo of the past in the future a reflex from the future on the past.

But you've reached them, and I've always wanted to reach people. I'm the first one to say I love my fans because they love that I took a chance.

Everything important seems already to have happened.

The body comes and goes. This life, my friend, will come and go. It is a fleeting moment, an impulse in an eternal reality.

I’d rather lose myself in passion than lose my passion.

I've won at every level.

Miracles seldom occur in the lives of those who do not consider them possible.

The multitude of people fail because they talk failure.