We can see that the complexity we witness inside the African-American community today has always been there. Black people were just as noble and just as ignoble as anybody else.

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.

They leave to test the waters but fail to realize the waters are full of rapids.

What we say and what we do ultimately comes back to us so let us own our responsibility place it in our hands and carry it with dignity and strength.

People that haven't seen us yet are shocked because they think that Alice Cooper must be a female folksinger. They don't expect the whole thing.

The gentleman sees what is right while the small man sees what is profitable.

It's essential to have sacred time for writing. All successful authors have some daily commitment to keep on-track and moving forward.

Maybe something that's acceptable in your teens or 20s is unacceptable in your 30s or 40s

Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do not overdo it.

There's nothing more horrifying than the possibility or the idea that you will just fade away into obscurity.

Let me tell you, that's what taxation is - it's confiscation. It's your money, it's not the government's money. But the government makes you think that it all comes from them.

I know from my own education that if I hadn't encountered two or three individuals that spent extra time with me, I'm sure I would have been in jail.