I think there's a lot that the larger society could have been taught or can be taught, but I'm not sure - given how unyielding the larger society has been - that much has been learned.

Each and every one of you has the power, the will and the capacity to make a difference in the world in which you live in

Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are civilization’s anchor. We are the compass for humanity’s conscience.

In the gun game, we are the most hunted. The river of blood that washes the streets of our nation flows mostly from the bodies of our black children.

I am who I am despite what America has put before me. I am who I am despite the obstacles that we have all faced based upon race and based upon social and spiritual humiliation.

You can cage the singer but not the song.

Art in its highest form is art that serves and instructs society and human development.

Bring it on. Dissent is central to any democracy.

These children and their parents know that getting an education is not only their right, but a passport to a better future - for the children and for the country.

We've come to this dark time in which the new Gestapo of Homeland Security lurks here, where citizens are having their rights suspended.

Where is the raised voice of black America? Why are we mute?

I can't go back, " said Towser. "Nor I, " said Fowler. "They would turn me back into a dog, " said Towser. "And me, " said Fowler, "back into a man.

In time of peace prepare for war.

I refuse to spend my life worrying about what I eat. There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward.

The dog was cold and in pain. But being only a dog it did not occur to him to trot off home to the comfort of the library fire and leave his master to fend for himself.

Just because people tell you it can't be done, that doesn't necessarily mean that it can't be done. It just means that they can't do it.

I live in a flat with 3 women, I call it surround sound. I keep the ugly one behind the sofa as a woofer.

You believe in freedom of speech for communists because what they say is true. You do not believe in freedom of speech for fascists because what they say is a lie.

The poem is lonely. It is lonely and en route. Its author stays with it. Does this very fact not place the poem already here, at its inception, in the encounter, in the mystery of encounter?

How about you, Mockingjay? You feel totally safe?” “Oh, yeah. Right up until I got shot,” I say.

Even in the most perfect love one person loves less profoundly than the other.