Freedom always carries a burden of proof, always throws us back on ourselves.

It is time for blacks to begin the shift from a wartime to a peacetime identity, from fighting for opportunity to the seizing of it.

Opportunity follows struggle. It follows effort. It follows hard work. It doesn't come before.

Every single progressive education fad of the past thirty years has hurt poor black children.

A black conservative is a black who dissents from the victimization explanation of black fate.

The promised land guarantees nothing. It is only an opportunity, not a deliverance.

My experience in life tells me that the values that are now being labeled 'conservative' are the only way that blacks can get ahead.

Liberalism has become a moral vaccine that immunizes people against stigmatization.

My honest opinion is that blacks have to fight much harder for their individuality than whites do.

I would love to see us, as blacks, get to the place where we say, 'I'm not going to play race games with you. Here I am. This is who I am. Take it or leave it.'

If you are a minority, it is important that you have legal ways to defend yourself in the society in which you live.

Always be true to yourself

The ones who would push you to engage in negative activities are the same ones who would laugh at you if you are drowning in the pool of misery.

I think inspiration is strongest when I find a balance between observation and participation. You can’t write about what it means to dance by watching from the bleachers.

You never do a movie and not want it to work. You accept whatever it is. You have to, but nobody in their right mind would not want the movie to be getting talked about at the end of the year.

Show business is the best possible therapy for remorse.

The Balkanization of the media means that nobody is having a single conversation with a single set of agreed-upon facts and assumptions the way you had as recently as the 90s.

I'm not a bad parent and partner, even if I make a thousand mistakes.

Hilarious, dude. You should, like, have your own show.

I don't mind being unlikely. I'd rather that than be predictable.

I'm in my 60s, and a cancer scare just makes you more aware of mortality.