[James] Baldwin explained that you have your own history, and that you cannot be responsible, for example, for slavery.

Face your reality. You, black or white, are not innocent anymore. Either you have the courage to face it or you will go down together with the whole idea of the American Dream.

Just try to be yourself and resist complacency and ignorance. All you can do is work, work; work and be disciplined.

The system gives you two minutes to phrase a whole history.

There are only one or two geniuses every century.

You need to react. That's the absurdity of Twitter. You can react without thinking now.

I just hope that my films will survive me.

[James] Baldwin is needed even more today because he helps you focus to the essential, to what is important.

[James] Baldwin "was one of greatest intellectuals of his time. He was an important voice, period, not an important black voice."

Today, I don't even think that people like [James Baldwin] are possible. He would not have that much room.

Your tweet is as important as if you would have written a Ph.D. [dissertation] on the subject.

As soon as you start asking what education is for, what the use of it is, you're abandoning the basic assumption of any true culture, that education is worth while for its own sake.

I done learned my mistake and learned to do what's right by it. You still trying to get something for nothing. Life don't owe you nothing. You owe it to yourself. - Troy -

One of the great aspects about [Barack Obama] is who he is as a human.

If I listened to my instincts, I'd be down at the pub chasing women, not under a 400 pound bar squatting

All my ex's live in Texas, And Texas is the place I'd dearly love to be, But all my ex's live in Texas, Therefore I reside in Tennessee

The body should not just be something you see. It's also the inside of it. It's frightening and abstract and much more than pretty or not pretty. The shape of it is boring.

I don't mind aging, I just don't want to be a day older.

My mom is the greatest mom in the whole wide world. She's done everything for me to make my dreams come true.

Almost everyone can do or be something for someone else in need.

There’s nothing under the ground that’s worth more than the little layer of topsoil sitting on top of it.