Precisely that, covering 500 years of African-American history in six hours. I've been working on this for seven years. The biggest challenge was deciding which stories to tell.

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.

To fly deep into the sky, you have to expand your wings by learning new things.

Count each affliction, whether light or grave, God's messenger sent down to thee.

Louis Vuitton, the world's biggest luxury brand in terms of sales, is planning to dampen its expansion worldwide and focus on high-end products to preserve its exclusive image.

There are a few things that'll move people to pity, a few, but the trouble is, when they've been used several times, they no longer work.

I'm focusing on healing lives and teaching people that they can heal - giving them tools to heal.

I believe that poets have to be inside their poems somewhere, or the poem won't work.

I have never done a thriller, and it will just be really fun for me to heave and pant and run and climb and break windows and scream every once in a while

We're doing the Twyla, not Twilight, so stop sucking!

Your future. It awaits only you, to live it and to write it. - Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb

If you could get rid of yourself just once, the secret of secrets would open to you. The face of the unknown, hidden beyond the universe would appear on the mirror of your perception.