"Some men will take you to the movies. Some will take you to the mountaintop."

"America. Where property damage is a greater offense than genocide."

"With tact, exit from the world I've created, and we never have to speak of those good times again."

"There are institutions filled with people who talk to god. we've labeled and drugged them."

"You should be so lucky to be like me. I allow myself to be disturbed too often. I'll probably end up talking to birds in a park. But you'll probably end up with regrets."

"Who told these people with dreams, goals and ambitions they could take time off?"

"The relationship was perfect, but I hated everything about the person I became."

"The black man today will only find solitude in one place: prison. ironically, he becomes most free while incarcerated."

"I enabled your tendency to be vulnerable and weak, and your habits of crying when 6,000 others were present for the music."

"I've never believed in anything or anybody that needed constant praise."

"The price you pay for opening your eyes is the easy life you can no longer have. but it becomes worth it."

"I remember reading article about the woman in that Oakland neighborhood who lost all her children to violence. I wondered why'd she keep living there after the first one was killed. Didn't she care about the others?Today, I zoomed out and wondered why I'm still in America."

"Some days I feel like I will die for them. Some days, with them."

"As an artist, one of the toughest things to do is getting someone to understand why you think the way you think. And as much as i don't wanna care what they think about my thinking, it comes down to making them understand or watching them leave."

"Why not fall in love with an artist? Otherwise there are no letters, pictures, paintings and songs for you when you wake up."

"Everyone gets broken. Everyone. Some grow stronger in those breaks. Others never recover."

"The light is supposed to enter through your breaks, wounds, and cracks."

"Black bodies have become ornamental, haven't they?"

"I sometimes sit on my roof. Not to be closer to god. To be further from y'all."

"I never begin my writings with talent. i begin them with strong emotions and liquor. they finish with talent."

"I don't know any homophobic people. That suggests fear.The people I know who hate gay folks are:illiterate, nescient, uneducated, uninstructed, unlearned, unschooled, untaught, backward, benighted, primitive, unenlightened, blockheaded, dense, doltish, hebetudinous, obtuse, stupid, thickheaded, thick-wittedBut not homophobic."

"I have to believe in reincarnation. believing that I'll be in one place forever is a hell in itself."

"Watching the summer close is like watching a good kid die for no apparent reason."

"Intelligence is a burden not many are willing or able to carry."

"I need my eulogy to look better than my resume. I'm living for that."

"Non Violence and Religion: Both designed to keep the oppressed from murdering their oppressors."

"If you had the option to pray for me or fight with me, you better choose the fight."

"The masters and overseers were so good at employee development, in their absence, the employees still achieved the company's mission."

"We should fall in love. Love each other enough to shit at the same time on the same toilet."

"Sex separation in the classroom leads to a bullshit socio-economic situation perpetuated by people with good intentions."

"Beautiful breezes in ugly parts of town give hope to those who want to be free."

"I will help build your museum. When you run out of space to hang your work. You can hang your work in mine."

"The problem is, there is no geographical cure. No matter where we (Black American Folk) go, we are still too plugged into this place. Our cousins, grandmothers, aunts, nieces will be in this place. And the second we start looking at it as a "them" problem, we become another problem."

"When you look back at that relationship you didn't think you could live without and realize had you stayed in it, you'd be some comfortable loser, sitting on the couch with another comfortable loser, instead of being the dope motherfucker you are today."

"Once a year I need to hear you tell me how proud you are of me for growing a little more."

"1. Feed off you. 2. Replenish you. 3. Repeat."

"I speak and help some folks only because I believe they may be god in flesh, testing me for politeness."

"Because you thought love was just gonna be there. You weren't taught that it had to be made, it had to be mixed, kneaded, recycled. Over and over, you have to keep creating it. Over and over with everyone you love. Over and over."

"None of my art is based on how others think i should have done it."

"And like that, I said goodbye to my grandmother like we were two people who met in a coffee shop, shared a lifetime of stories and left wanting more, but knowing we'd meet there again."

"Because when the night gets here, I'll be the youngest I'll ever be again, so I will laugh and celebrate relative youth."

"Can't be on the front lines fighting a war with the weapons given to you by the enemy."

"The meetings and marches and vigils are cool, but if the enemy isn't present, you're just talking slick to a can of oil."

"Try evolving as much as you cry."

"Hater" and "hate" are used when no critical thought can be formed. We can definitely do better."

"I'm homeless. I've taken to the belief that home is not where we lay our heads comfortably some nights, or where we entertain visiting friends. It's not where love is unconditional. When I look up and realize I haven't run away in a long time, I'll know I'm home."

"Dear Police:You can't protect me and be scared of me."

"It is in racists' best interest to maintain white supremacy at all costs. They will defend it with their lives, but ONLY after they've defended it with ours."

"I've always looked at America like a foster mother doing it only for the check. At any minute, I just knew she'd be ready to give up on me."

"Sanity and sense becomes a prison."