My role is the shepherd's role. The shepherd is the one who opens the gate and allows the flock to go through and whoever opens the gate has to close it, and the gate is not yet closed.

People in the Hall of Fame tend to clap their hands and say, 'OK, I've done it all,' but for me, it was a new beginning.

Got your mind set on a dream, you can get it though how hard it may seem.

Good thinking brings good feeling and good feeling brings good thinking.

Rome was not built in a day Opposition will come your way But the harder the battle you see It's the sweeter the victory

I'd rather be a free man in my grave than living as a puppet or a slave.

I love to create and that's what gives my soul the satisfaction.

And I keep on fighting for the things I want. Though I know that when you're dead you can't. But I'd rather be a free man in my grave, than living as a puppet or a slave.

In the country, people are kind. In the city, people are hard an' cold, like the concrete and steel.

I've done a lot of things to become what I've become, out to create and establish a musical form and I call it movie.

Social justice has always been a part of my inspiration. For example, when the Vietnam War was going on, I wrote a song about that.

I never wanted to do biography just to tell the life of a famous man. I always wanted to use the life of a man to examine political power, because democracy shapes our lives.

My father was the kind of guy who'd always say 'Throw out any subject and I got a joke on it,'

It's not even about black and white anymore, because so many people are from mixed backgrounds and mixed ethnicities, and it's just a great time to be able to pull all that together.

I love to wear red lipstick a lot, even in the daytime.

I attended a Baptist church as a child and was an avid reader starting with the Bible.

The dream is over. I gotta get down to reality. The good old days is garbage.

Convicts are the best audience I ever played for.

An old pop music producer once said that there are really only four kinds of song a person can write: "I love you/I hate you/go away/come back!" That's a funny observation.

...an actor is exactly as big as his imagination.

Most people put money in their piggy bank. I buy a goose that lays golden eggs over and over again. That's what an asset is.