Really, the values under which my generation was raised in the '50s were immigrant values even though we weren't immigrants. The greatest thing you could be was a college-educated Negro.

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.

Smartass Disciple: Where were all things before the time began?Master of Stupidity: What was the time before all things created?

Man lives by imagination.

All I want is the defining moment.

Money has lost its narrative quality the way painting did once upon a time. Money is talking to itself.

I turned Compaq from a small company with troubles into a computer powerhouse. We can do the same at Intershop.

Even other movies I wasn't involved with, I'd watch them edit 'cause I really enjoy watching them go through their process. It's a very economical, educational process.

I really believe that you cannot use the stock market as a proxy for the economy.

Title everything you do, if for no other reason than so you can find it again on your computer.

More and more I’ve become convinced that the great treasure to possess is the unknown.

Peaceful is the one who is not concerned with having more or less.