Honestly, you have to take care of yourself. That's probably something I have learned on the road.

A flower that grow in the ghetto know more about survival than the one from fresh meadows.

Skip the religion and politics, head straight to the compassion. Everything else is a distraction.

I ignored your aura but it grabbed me by the hand, like the moon pulled the tide, and the tide pulled the sand.

Do the math: You never settle for less than the whole if you knew the half.

You gotta get back to your essence, Use your gifts and share your presence, Don't count your dollars 'til you count your blessings.

Life without knowledge is death in disguise.

The beautiful thing about hip-hop is it's like an audio collage. You can take any form of music and do it in a hip-hop way and it'll be a hip-hop song. That's the only music you can do that with.

If lyrics sold then truth be told/I'd probably be just as rich and famous as Jay-Z.

I'm at a loss for words. But even my loss is amplified.

You know, there's a lot of activism that doesn't deal with empowerment, and you have to empower yourself in order to be relevant to any type of struggle.

God gives strength to the weak.

Heaven mocks the short-sighted views of man.

...he had a way of taking your hand which made it clear he'd have to be the one to let go." From Alice Hoffman's "Local Girls", pg.102.

In Stratford you either turn into an alcoholic or you better write.

These days, teachers have it rough. Kids can be hyperactive, disobedient, and obnoxious. It must feel like being locked in a room of drunk midgets.

To travel far, there is no better ship than a book.

[While] the primary responsibility, as we all acknowledge, (falls) with the family, ... Our homes, our families, our children's minds are being flooded by a tide of violence.

I've talked to dozens of Chicagoans who will only go off the record in talking about the manufactured mythology.

I wanna be the best, simple and plain

The moment you enter into the world of words you start falling away from that which is. The more you enter into language, the farther you are away from existence.