That's not an accident that Donald Trump didn't begin with, say, trade or jobs or anything, that he actually began by otherizing the first African-American president of the United States.

Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others.

An America that looks away is ignoring not just the sins of the past but the sins of the present and the certain sins of the future.

What sets black people apart is not some deficit in personal responsibility. It's the weight on our shoulders. That is what's actually different. We have the weight and burden of history.

The best part of writing is not the communication of knowledge to other people, but the acquisition and synthesizing of knowledge for oneself.

I did not know then that this is what life is - just when you master the geometry of one world, it slips away, and suddenly again, you're swarmed by strange shapes and impossible angles.

When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.

Racism is, among other things, the unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another.

[E]mpathy - not squishy self-serving conflict avoidance - is the hand-maiden, not the enemy, of reason and intellectual inquiry.

You can live in the world of myth and be taken seriously.

If George Washington crossing the Delaware matters, so must his ruthless pursuit of the runagate Oney Judge.

One who gossips usually carries boredom in one hand and bitterness in the other.

We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect.

If I die before my cat, I want a little of my ashes put in his food so I can live inside him.

Obamacare represents a shocking display of political arrogance. It's about time Washington started listening to Americans' common sense voices.

movies have mirrored our moods and myths since the century began. They have taken on some of the work of religion.

The best part of writing is thinking about the story. And then everything else takes a lot of discipline.

There's no rules. Show me the rule book.

Do not expect Plato's ideal republic; be satisfied with even the smallest step forward, and consider this no small achievement.

I always feel I can play a role - just give me the time to do the preparation and I'll be it.

Fear is the disease. Hustle is the antidote.