You can't hide behind race any more. You can't hide behind class structure any more. You can't hide behind family. You need to produce.

Race in America is not a problem you can go over, or around or under. You've got to go through it.

One of the things that the Hillary Clinton campaign has done, I think all the mayors in America would agree, is have a detailed plan about how that money actually gets down to the ground fast.

The city of New Orleans showed America what it takes to rebuild a great place. We're all going together, and we're not leaving anybody behind.

The people of New Orleans have gotten to rock bottom. And the only way out in my mind is for them to really understand it, and then to really choose to get better.

I love Mardi Gras. I'm a street rat.

It is an affront to our present, and it is a bad prescription for our future. History cannot be changed. It cannot be moved like a statue. What is done is done.

They were erected purposefully to send a strong message to all who walked in their shadows about who was still in charge in this city.

Centuries-old wounds are still raw because they never healed right in the first place. Here is the essential truth. We are better together than we are apart.

Love isn’t blind. Maybe we are all born blind and love finally gives us sight.

Creativity is a continual surprise.

... pain has been with him since birth - the universe's gift to a poet ...

I read the script and try not to bring anything personal into it. I make notes, talk to the director and we decide what kinds of shades should be in the character.

The seasons run with swift feet.

A grandma is old on the outside and young on the inside.

The universe corresponds to the nature of your song.

Happiness is not something that happens ... It does not depend on outside events, but, rather, on how we interpret them.

Vladimir Putin devastates and destroys his enemies. He's been devastating and destroying the Syrian people. And Hillary Clinton spoke out against that. She had the courage to do that.

New fiction writers are a special breed in my estimation, and I never dreamed that so many people would be interested, but I remember being led by God