I've tried to use the recognition as validation that I'm doing the kind of work that people are interested in and to feel that my work is a contribution.

I want kids to understand that making pictures is similar to making music; there are so many instruments and so many tunes that the possibilities for how you play are truly limitless.

I wanted to show that an African-American artist could make it in this country on a national level in the graphic arts. I want to be a strong role model for my family and for other African Americans.

I've always felt that if I worked hard enough and continued to refine my craft, while staying curious about our times and our world, I just might have something to contribute.

I never demonstrate how art should be made or what the outcome should look like. Instead, give kids the tools and the materials to make their own art. Have them experience the process.

Make it all about the work. Everything else will follow.

If you do the best work you can, the reward is ultimately your self-satisfaction - the sense that you have done the best you can. And then there's that piece of how others respond.

I feel the calmest when I'm drawing or when I'm creating images. I love connecting the mind with the hand and producing something - that is very comforting and centering for me.

We live in a time when there is an abundance of ways we can express ourselves.

African American writers and artists, by the very nature of what they do, will actually enhance or bring together people in a way that might be very, very healthy.

I try not to respond with a pep talk, such as, "Everyone has talent, just try, you'll see." I skirt those kinds of answers.

I vote my conscience first and my constituents next, regardless of the direction of our leadership.

Ninety-seven is my lucky number.

We cannot lead anyone farther than we have been ourselves.

I am as much interested in the smallest detail as in the whole structure.

I'm more interested in the meanings and the bands that fill up the spaces known as new wave and post punk.

A man is not learned because he talks much; he who is patient, free from hatred and fear, he is called learned.

Many successful people have found opportunities in failure and adversity that they could not recognize in more favorable circumstances.

We have to be prepared for change.

A late summer garden has a tranquility found no other time of the year.

I can't work in Brooklyn. Unless I'm completely locked away in a studio, there's just too much distraction and stimulation.