If America has a civic religion, the First Amendment is its central article of faith.

In America there is institutional racism that we all inherit and participate in, like breathing the air in this room - and we have to become sensitive to it.

The story of the African-American people is the story of the settlement and growth of America itself, a universal tale that all people should experience.

The first step toward tolerance is respect and the first step toward respect is knowledge.

The thing about black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up.

In Ethiopia, the black people became Christians 1700 years ago, hundreds of years before Northern Europe turned to Christianity... And here, most of the saints are black.

We can revolutionize the attitude of inner city brown and black kids to learning. We need a civil rights movement within the African-American community.

I want to be a figure for prison reform. I think that the criminal justice system is rotten.

Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.

Wherever you go in the history of America, there have been Black people making contributions, but their contributions have been obscured, lost, buried.

Well, certainly one of the ironies of the success of affirmative action is that the middle class within the black community no longer lives within 'black community' by and large.

Control yourself every passing second and make sure that no unit of time is being wasted

the inletour friend looks as he didwhen we first knew him, and until I wake I believeI will die of grief, for I knowthat this boy grew into a manwho was a faithful friendwho died.

The Art of Writing for Children is the knowledge of what is significant to them

We learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men's behaviour.

What happened to romance? Sappy, soppy longhand love letters.

I could not imagine that we should make much of an effort to preserve remainders of natural beauty in conquered Poland.

My favorite guitar solo of all time was Elliot Randall's on 'Reelin' In The Years'.

I've always played different kinds of roles, and I probably played more vulnerable parts when I was really young.

A person's faith can collapse almost overnight if she failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection.

Skiffle was blues featuring a washboard and acoustic instruments. It encompassed blues, with elements of folk, jazz, and, at times, American country-and-western music.