My father was the funniest man I ever met. He made Redd Foxx look like an undertaker.

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.

Fear is the poison that erodes resolve. And fear is not without a killer of its own. Hope.

I would like to find a stew that will give me heartburn immediately, instead of at three o clock in the morning.

Barcelona is a very old city in which you can feel the weight of history it is haunted by history. You cannot walk around it without perceiving it.

Memory is the mother of all wisdom.

Becoming Catholic involves entering into a relationship with the Catholic Church.

I've been profoundly germophobic since I was a young child. I don't want to kiss anyone but my girlfriend for my whole life.

But remember, when it comes to friends, it's not how much time you spend with them, just how you spend it!

It's just that the times I'm wrong don't register in your memory with as much clarity as the times I'm right.

We live in a vale of tears...We can have all the dreams we like, but life is hard, implacable, sad.