You can't build a chimney from the top, you know.

If you have a purpose in which you can believe, there's no end to the amount of things you can accomplish.

You lose a lot of time, hating people.

When I sing, I don't want them to see that my face is black; I don't want them to see that my face is white - I want them to see my soul. And that is colorless.

As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might.

Prejudice: Sometimes it's like a hair across your cheek. You can't see it, you can't find it with your fingers, but you keep brushing at it because the feel of it is irritating.

Every one has a gift for something, even if it is the gift of being a good friend.

Fear is a disease that eats away at logic and makes man inhuman.

None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the character or quality of the person underneath.

When you stop having dreams and ideals - well, you might as well stop altogether.

Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it

I never tried to sing like anybody else, fortunately I didn't sound like anybody else. It just happened.

SETI is probably the most important quest of our time , and it amazes me that governments and corporations are not supporting it sufficiently.

There’s no black male my age, who’s a professional, who hasn’t come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn’t hand them their car keys.

The Independence and Liberty you possess are the work of joint councils and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings and successes.

I connect with kids easily. They bring out the maternal side in me.

I'm a rapper trying to be an actor.

There have been people I've warmed to over the years but, as the situation I'm in is so fleeting and transient, I've always known it's going to be over kind of real quick.

I think people thought that if [Donald Trump] won, he'd win by one state the way that President [George W.] Bush did.

I have called President Obama, and President Obama called me on various issues. This is part of our regular contacts, there is nothing unusual or extraordinary about it.

The first ten thousand drawings are the hardest. Put another way, you have ten thousand bad drawings within and should expel them as quickly as possible.