"Music rhythms are mathematical patterns. When you hear a song and your body starts moving with it, your body is doing math. The kids in their parents' garage practicing to be a band may not realize it, but they're also practicing math."

"The '80s made up for all the abuse I took during the '70s. I outlived all my critics. By the time I retired, everybody saw me as a venerable institution. Things do change."

"Jackie Robinson, as an athlete and as someone who was trying to make a stand for equality, he was exemplary."

"I think black Americans expect too much from individual black Americans in terms of changing the status quo."

"We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's dam is the history we make today."

"People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them."

"Every scar carries the quiet memory of a battle faced and survived."

"The days when a car aficionado could repair his or her own car are long past, due primarily to the high software content."