My purpose is to paint the life of my people as I know it.

You should always respect what you are and your culture because if your art is going to mean anything, that is where it comes from.

When I conjure these memories, they are of the present to me, because after all, the artist is a kind of enchanter in time.

What I've attempted to do is establish a world through art in which the validity of my Negro experience could live and make its own logic.

The artist has to be something like a whale swimming with his mouth wide open, absorbing everything until he has what he really needs.

Black art has always existed. It just hasn't been looked for in the right places.

Art is the soul of a people.

The artist confronts chaos. The whole thing of art is, how do you organize chaos?

Sometimes the mind relives things very clearly for us...There are roads out of secret places within us along which we all must move as we go to touch others.

Painting is a self-disciplined activity that you have to learn by yourself.

You don't paint what you see, you paint what you feel.

The real beginning of influence comes as others sense you are being influenced by them--when they feel understood by you--that you have listened deeply and sincerely, and that you are open.

If you start each day happy and treat people with more kindness, it determines the way you live your day. It's all about your choices!

What's the point of these demagogic campaigns if these hungry kids are still here on the road? All little ones deserve protection, food, love and peace.

The bird is powered by its own life and by its motivation.

The more articulate one is, the more dangerous words become.

President [Barack] Obama is a man who had certain advantages because of the civil rights movement.

Love is something sent from Heaven to worry the Hell out of you.

We're attracted to bad guys, and we like to follow bad guys, because they do things that we want to do but just don't do, for whatever reasons.

You know how much money the oil companies have? If you need some gas, just go fill your tank off and drive off - they're not going to miss it.

"Gun Control" isn't about guns. It's about control. If guns are outlawed, how can we shoot the liberals?