"If not for the success that medicine has made, I might be part of a much different story right now."

"When I was 17, I worked in a mentoring program in Harlem designed to improve the community. That's when I first gained an appreciation of the Harlem Renaissance, a time when African-Americans rose to prominence in American culture. For the first time, they were taken seriously as artists, musicians, writers, athletes, and as political thinkers."

"I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice."

"Black people don't have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted."

"It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance... and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process."

"With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things."

"Only strength can cooperate. Weakness can only beg."

"The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it."