“The silver and black may have another home, but the Raiders will always belong to the people of Los Angeles.”

I never was in the Nation of Islam… I mean, what I call myself is a natural Muslim, ’cause it’s just me and God.

You want the industry to finally admit that you’re good. But I’m still good without their admission.

I always was like, “Yo, I’m here, I might as well get what I could take.”

There’s a lot of potential that goes unused in places like South Central L.A., a lot of brilliant, smart people who just don’t have that chance to show it.

Don’t talk about death, I’ve got too much life to live, To many orders to give.

Don’t worry about being a star, worry about doing good work, and all that will come to you.

I think reading is important in any form. I think a person who’s trying to learn to like reading should start off reading about a topic they are interested in, or a person they are interested in.

Doing it your own way, not having to go exactly by the book to be successful.

I feel like I got a whole lot of living to do before I think about summing it up in a book.

I’m not actually from Compton – I’m from South Central Los Angeles, and my father still lives in the same house I grew up in, so I’m there all the time.

I’m always happy. I’ve just got a mean face.

I grew up in the seventies and disco was big. That influenced me the most.

I think the worst thing you can do about a situation is nothing.

Don’t get a movie confused with real life. I’m a well-rounded human being like everyone else.

You pay to have a good time, you don’t always want to pay to be schooled or sad or reminded how bad you got it. To me a movie theater ain’t always the place for that.

I always want to read the script before I totally commit.

Since stepping reluctantly into public life, I’ve been held up as the most powerful woman in the world and taken down as an angry black woman. I’ve wanted to ask my detractors which part of that phrase matters to them the most—is it angry or black or woman ?

It isn’t a matter of black is beautiful as much as it is white is not all that’s beautiful.

I was’nt always black. There was this freckel that just grew and grew.

The realities are that, you know, as a black man, you know, Barack can get shot going to the gas station, you know.

It’s remarkable how a stereotype functions as an actual trap. How many angry black women have been caught in the circular logic of that phrase? When you aren’t being listened to, why wouldn’t you get louder? If you’re written off as angry or emotional, doesn’t that just cause more of the same?

I’m not black, but there’s a whole lot of times I wish I could say I’m not white.

Be Black, buy Black, think Black, and all else will take care of itself.

I have no desire to take all black people back to Africa; there are blacks who are no good here and will likewise be no good there.