“I was very fortunate to have known Fred Ross Sr., who was organizing the Community Service Organization (CSO) way back in the late 50’s and early 60’s. I was able to work with him.”

Especially as a teenager, I was always being racially profiled by the police. You just see all this injustice, and you want to do something about it, but you don’t know how.

We know we only have about half of our population that’s voting.

It’s important to realize that we all need to work together. With Weaving Movements, we are all interdependent and we all have to work together. If we could just realize that and understand that, we’ll keep our country strong.

As a youngster and being a Latina, you see so much injustice.

I had been a Girl Scout from the time I was 8 to the time I was 18 years old. I had belonged to my church organization and youth groups. But, you never really found a way that you could make a change.

When a group of people get together, it’s collective power. You know that you’re doing it for the good.

People would say ‘Who is a leader?’ A leader is a person that does the work. It’s very simple. It’s a personal choice for people who choose to put in their time and their commitment to do the work. It’s a personal choice.

Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.

If you haven’t forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?

Exercise your right to vote.

I want to say to mothers out there, you know, take your children to marches. Take them to meetings because this is a way that they can become strong, and they understand what politics is all about because they are actually living it.

Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth.

In fact, the corporations are driving out the competition and it is not getting better, especially when they are not paying income taxes. Thank goodness for the social media out there, because we sure can’t count on the corporate media to get the word out.

As organizations, we have to find ways to create more opportunities, especially for our young people. A lot of corporations, they have to make opportunities for young people – create internships, for example, even if it’s only half-time.

People can take power over their communities and over their lives. Some people don’t realize they can do that. They think ‘It’s OK for other people, but I myself can’t do it.’ Hopefully, that will come out of the film.

I think we brought to the world, the United States anyway, the whole idea of boycotting as a nonviolent tactic. I think we showed the world that nonviolence can work to make social change.

I feel like I’ve been fortunate enough that I’ve gotten to meet and work with some really passionate people.

I believe that, in our industry, overexposure tends to create problems for artists, so fortunately, I have been exposed but not overexposed.

When something good comes your way, you better feel fortunate, because it doesn’t last forever.

Unfortunately I’ve been to jail a couple times. Anytime I come in it’s difficult to make music, write songs.

And we’re fortunate if we have parents who are great and loving and inspiring. But, unfortunately, there are people who don’t have that.

I hope that all of us who were fortunate enough to have benefited will put our time, our resources and our efforts into making sure that kids, particularly kids without means, have a way to achieve.

Fortunately the sky is beautiful everywhere.

Unfortunately, the more complex the system, the greater the room for error.