Art-making is an extension of the kind of spiritual process that shamans unfold in order to demonstrate the connectedness of the world beyond reality.

Black does not signify the darkness related to death or nothingness, but a darkness that combines everything and holds the possibility of creation, a temporary death that embraces rebirth.

Entrusting one's life is not the same as opening up one's soul.

Patience . . . speaks of a person’s steadfastness under provocation . . .enduring ill-treatment without anger or thought of retaliation or revenge.

To be aware of a single shortcoming within oneself is more useful than to be aware of a thousand in somebody else.

The people are not stupid, but they are totally misinformed.

Think before you speak, your words could hurt someone's feeling more than you intended it to.

People have tried to control other people by trapping them with debt. A loan can become a harmful and dangerous weapon.

How strange it seems that education, in practice, so often means suppression: that instead of leading the mind outward to the light of day it crowds things in upon it that darken and weary it.

You come out of each movie just thinking, "God, if we can fool them into letting us make just one more, we can get it right."

That feeling of hopelessness and racism has been looming over Detroit ever since I was a kid.

To be called a coward, I don't think that's fair