he knew in his body, even if he hadn’t yet put it together in his mind, that in America the worst thing you could be was a black man. Worse than dead, you were a dead man walking.

But if we do not like the person we have learned to be, should we just sit in front of our fufu, doing nothing? I think, James, that maybe it is possible to make a new way.

History is Storytelling.

Maybe he wouldn't end up the kind of man who needed to use his body for work. Maybe he'd be a new kind of black man altogether, one who got to use his mind.

Evil is like a shadow. It follows you.

We can’t go back to something we ain’t never been to in the first place. It ain’t ours anymore. This is.

... as a reminder that a white man could still kill him for nothing.

No one forgets that they were once captive, even if they are now free.

Sometimes the most appropriate response to an attack is to not engage, especially in situations where your own words may be used as weapons against you.

having too much is never enough.

A period recourse into the wilds is not a retreat into secret silent sanctums to escape a wicked world, it is to take breath amid effort to forge a better world.

I don't have anything to say about other people's art and their work.

It's a shame, she had me convinced that she could've been a dime. I guess I lost another one to the wintertime.

They who prematurely put themselves forward to root out whatever is displeasing to them overthrow the judgment of God and rashly intrude upon the office of angels.

I ain't makin' music for the media. I make music for the people in the streets - that want a street level of entertainment. I'm makin' music because I have the streets to feed.

First of all, I'm no better than the next person.

Believe in your work, educate yourself about the business, surround yourself with good people, set goals and timetables and stay focused on them.