There were so few black men who were successful and who successfully conveyed black male fear - how America can make you feel crazy, and how America can create interesting levels of contradiction.

I think you're not really teaching anyone unless you're learning yourself.

For black people, being around white people is sometimes like taking care of babies you don't like, babies who throw up on you again and again, but whom you cannot punish, because they're babies.

I was so well loved by my mother that if people have any expectations of me I really don't notice because I'm hardest on myself.

Inspiration takes many forms, but it's rarely pure.

Challenging is good, like good conversation, yes? Who wants to have dinner with the same old easy listening music sounding friends all the time?

One of the things I noticed when I worked at Vibe was that backstage at a fashion show, they always referred to the black models as "black girls." I thought, "They never say 'white girls.'

Images are really powerful. People fall in love with images, and as a way of falling in love with someone because they're like an image.

People are quick to make monuments of anything they live long enough to control.

Who says reading should be easy? Shouldn't it challenge you as hard sometimes as love. Maybe "hard" is not the right word in this context. Ha!

I'm a draftsperson. And also, I really respond to love.

If you don’t take care of the disenfranchised and outcasts of your city, they will come knocking on your door one day with revenge and bitterness

Truly worthy are those who become brighter as the days get cloudier so that their light shines through, regardless of how hard the clouds are working to block their radiance.

Every journey has a destination, known or unknown.

The first casualty of war is casual wear.

Folk music is the original melody of man; it is the musical mirror of the world.

The only two questions that need to be asked each day are: Did I live wisely? Did I love well?

I love modeling but also see it as a platform for the million other things I want to achieve and create in life.

To die or not to die ... we really don't have a choice. We can therefore only take care of our life-body, until the fullness of time and being ends our existence on earth.

Let me assure you that I am not satisfied making $40-$50 million on the same volume of beer (as) CUB sells.