My father and I made genetics history. We were the first African-Americans and the first father and son anywhere to have their genomes sequenced.

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.

I have received no more than one or two letters in my life that were worth the postage.

The beauty of independence, departure, actions that rely on themselves.

One must never fail to pronounce moral judgment.

Don't be careful. You could hurt yourself.

The best thing that could ever happen to any one of us is that all our sins would be broadcast on the 5 o' clock news.

The essence of good and evil is a certain disposition of the will.

Sometimes I dream song ideas. I write a song in my dream, the melody and everything. But then sometimes I can't remember them. I think later on, I probably do.

Immaturity is the inability to delay self gratification.

He knew what he knew: that the real world was full of magic, so magical worlds could easily be real.

Despite what people think of cowboys, they take pride in how they look, and that look is important to them.