If you go to a college campus and you do stop and frisk, you're going to find a lot of drugs there too.

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.

Irena Sendler never thought of herself as a hero. She only did what she felt she must, and wished she could have done more.

The art does not always mimic the artist. You never know the real person until you slide beneath their surface

Them sportswriters don't even know how to put uniforms on, most of 'em.

Loneliness is never more cruel than when it is felt in close propinquity with someone who has ceased to communicate.

I have problems because I'm very expressive, and usually red lipstick gets on my teeth and face.

No yoga exercise, no meditation in a chapel filled with music will rid you of your blues better than the humble task of making your own bread.

I'm sure it's why I'm such an odd duck in my feminist generation, because I've always been equally fair to men.

The best player I've ever played with was Paul Gascoigne. He had everything. He was amazing.

Contrary to general belief, I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first.

I'm not cynical about love at all. I'm very practical. I think love takes up a lot of time.