I needed to create something I could take with me wherever I went.

I kept wanting to push my image as validity; I wanted to see my portrait on a wall and know it was okay.

For a while, I was nervous about portraying women because of the objectification that automatically comes with it, whether the artist intends or not.

Being a black artist, the first thing people want to talk about is your blackness, the importance of your blackness and your black presence.

I dont think about race before I start drawing. I think about how to make that mark to fit whatever purpose I need it to fulfill.

The graphic style itself is influenced by a lot of very layered and detailed comics that I read as a kid, like Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue.

I moved around a lot when I was a child; two of the houses I grew up in have totally disappeared. One was burnt in a riot, and the other was pulled down.

It is hard to produce work in New York. You kind of have to center yourself - do some Zen meditation exercises and just focus. It is very distracting, and money, of course, is an issue.

That said the conspirators:Tell us your secret and we will have betrayed you for a lifetime.

Only in mathematics and physics was I, through self-study, far beyond the school curriculum, and also with regard to philosophy as it was taught in the school curriculum.

Man is the mirror God holds up to himself, the sense organ with which he apprehends his being.

I sacrificed for the Dallas Cowboys when most quit. I put in overtime to try to help young players.

I believe in my own abilities and my future enough that I will not take a job that could hurt the integrity of my long-term career.

Breathing first, winning next.

There are millions to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots. Don't let thisget around.

I don't profess to be a healer, a minister, a priest. I feel as an entertainer I can do more good for the world than I would if I were a soapbox orator or a self-made politician.

I think that occasionally running away and crashing where people can't find you is important.

Life is short. Forgive quickly, kiss slowly and love truly.