There are choices you have to make not just once

When you win, we win; but when you go down, you go down alone.

Nobody supported me; my family thought I had gone crazy. They thought, you crazy gangster, you crazy drug addict, now you want to be a writer? That's it! They totally gave up on me after that.

Nobody had books at home. My dad was a very educated person, so he would have books at home. All Spanish books. That helped. Most of my homies had no books at home.

The more you know, the more you owe.

I'm not really anti-gang - I was a gang member and so was my son. I'm pro-youth, pro-community, pro-family, pro-arts, and pro-peace.

Eventually I went back to high school. I went to a coaching center in my neighborhood. I had to leave the homeless situation because it was so bad and I knew that I was falling deeper and deeper.

I've always been prepared to write about the hard things. Only for healing, teaching, and enlightening purposes not to hurt or disparage anyone.

In order to stay out of trouble I worked in industry. You can't even do that nowadays; there were all those factories.

I was kind of a weird homie; I was a weird kid. Nobody in my family loved books. I'm the only one.

I'm not very technically minded. I mean, I don't know how to do e-mail on computers.

I work in colour sometimes, but I guess the images I most connect to, historically speaking, are in black and white. I see more in black and white - I like the abstraction of it.

I found nothing really wrong with this autobiography except poor choice of subject.

Family is supposed to be our safe haven. Very often, it's the place where we find the deepest heartache.

I always try to be a champion of social change and anything that brings awareness to a really dire situation.

Civilization is that mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty.

Know that you are worth so much more than the value you place on your body. It's not the only thing that defines you.

Make living your life with absolute integrity and kindness your first priority.

Don't worry chief, it will be alright.

Instruction begins when you, the teacher, learn from the learner; put yourself in his place so that you may understand . . . what he learns and the way he understands it.