The Black Power Mixtape is a documentary, first of all. It brings us closer to the voices we heard at that particular point in time.

I was able to do The Saint of Fort Washington, on the relationship between two homeless men.

We have to be that wedge that drives the question and asks the hard questions

I try to find hope in struggle and resistance in small places as much as I can.

If we talk about literacy, we have to talk about how to enhance our children's mastery over the tools needed to live intelligent, creative, and involved lives.

I have the capacity to express what I feel needs to be expressed. And I try to do what I believe in.

Art is about the dynamics of the human experience.

It's important for people of color to link up with issues around globalization, food security, health, the environment.

What happened to Haiti is a threat that could happen anywhere in the Caribbean to these island nations, you know, because of global warming, because of climate change and all this.

Today, the media dictatorship is becoming a substitute to military dictatorship. The big economic groups are using the media and decide who can speak, who the good guy is and who the bad guy is.

When someone you know passes on, the only thing you can do is keep moving forward.

The mind of a man!

I get this buzz every time I'm quoted online. The ego high... yes... but also a Google Alert.

Heal my heart and make it clean, open up my eyes to the things unseen, show me how to love like you have loved me.

Steel is prince or pauper.

Every time I hit the ball on the wall I uses to pretend I was there (Wimbledon). When I went to sleep I used to pretend I was there.

You had better live your best and act your best and think your best today; for today is the sure preparation for tomorrow and all the other tomorrows that follow.

The only way you approach politics and seek elective office is to move forward. For me to look back in anger or with any rancor would be a mistake.

You have a deeper connection with people who you have shared experiences with and shared pain.

What I tend to tell my students is, “When you look in the mirror and see a smart, angry girl who wants to be free, you're seeing a paradigm that Kathy [Acker] helped bring into the recognizable.”

Above all, you have to love what you are doing. You cannot fake passion. If you love it you can fight through the rough times and enjoy the good times.