On the one hand, there is no reason that a black person needs to live a portion of his or her life being concerned about the people of color around him. On the other hand, if you don't you're crazy.

What drives people to public service is a sense of possibility. If you haven't sensed that possibility you don't get started in the same way, you don't feel you can have an impact.

If you're black in America, race is a factor in your life. Start with that assumption.

We don't have a full black community in Boston. Our people are scattered. There's a middle class where I live in Highland Park but it's not like a piece of Washington or Chicago.

Everybody needs history but the people who need it most are poor folks - people without resources or options.

Food might be more immediately important than history but if you don't understand what's been done to you - by your own people and the so-called 'they' - you can never get around it.

It is not the fame, not the flesh, not the money. We want something else, something pretty.

Music is the only language which can be understood by everyone—even a tree can understand music.

Do you think that anger is a sincere emotion, or just the timid motion of a fragile heart trying to beat away its pain?

njoy the ride of life. It is irreplaceable.

You may have bought my body, you may even have the papers to prove it, but don't fool yourself into thinking for a moment that my heart and mind were included in the purchase.

I would love to have everybody in the world love Bob Schneider. That's my goal- hundred per cent world domination!

Me too, I make do, I anoint what cannot be fixed.

When the party holds the White House, all the political decisions are made in the White House. And being a party chair, you're just an artifact.

Today's burdens can strengthen you for tomorrow.

The disintegration of the culture starts with the artist. Im on a crusade to turn the tide in the arts, to restore dignity to the arts and, by extension, to the culture.