You can't be an American without being related to other Americans.

The artist's role is to raise the consciousness of the people. To make them understand life, the world and themselves more completely. That's how I see it. Otherwise, I don't know why you do it.

A man is either free or he is not. There cannot be any apprenticeship for freedom.

There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you

The torture of being the unseen object, and the constantly observed subject.

My responsibility is to truth and beauty.

In America, black is a country.

I'd say I'm a revolutionary optimist. I believe that the good guys -the people- are going to win.

There is no depth to education without art.

Thought is more important than art....To revere art and have no understanding of the process that forces it into existence, is finally not even to understand what art is.

All thinking people oppose terrorism both domestic & international but one should not be used to cover the other

We are in this world not only for ourselves but for others.

No man can walk so long in the Shadow that he cannot come again to the Light.

If there were several ways to dwell with a perfect God, God wouldn't have had to leave His glory, entering a dead world to save us.

I love roles where I have to transform myself.

Face it, you have to be sort of an egomaniac to write something down and think that anyone is going to want to read it.

Your lips and mine, two sips of wine, memories are made of this.

It is interesting that so many people who become disenchanted, who protest against their own organizations, are people who contributed something to them and then saw how it was misused.

I'll always be an outrageous character.

I cook everything. I love Mediterranean cooking, I love Asian cooking. I do lots of Japanese noodles.

When a director makes a mistake, people suffer. People suffer horribly sometimes.