The exceptionalism of a black U.S. President is not important to me. It's what he does - and who he has at the table.

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.

It was her eyes. Soft, meadow-shade eyes with frostbitten edges. Every glance casually held gossamer infinity. Every stare revealed inky black abyss with a hint of divinity.

I've never been afraid of being alone. For the sake of my work, I must be!

When we teach people to run after miracles, we make them helpless.

The value of a life is always measured by how much of it is given away.

I worked my way through law school.

The beautiful seems right by force of beauty and the feeble wrong because of weakness.

Happiness is the feeling that power increases - that resistance is being overcome.

Socrates was a philosopher. He went around pointing out errors in the way things were done. They fed him hemlock.

I do the things I like to do. It's sort of a bigger version of having more than one hobby.

The power of our example is more important than the strength of our military.