“All I’ve ever tried to tell anyone is that I’m not a black man or a white man or anything else. All I’ve ever been was an American.”

My whole family likes to play basketball. George II plays for his high school team and George III and George IV and George V are going to be good players. One day we’re going to have a team and call it Georgetown.

If you don’t dream, you might as well be dead.

Filling a need is not merely good business; it’s a basic attitude towards life. If you see a need, do whatever you can to meet that need.

A Jack Russell terrier? My god. He’ll burn you up. They never stop. A German shepherd, you can only go so many miles.

The question isn’t at what age I want to retire, it’s at what income.

I look at my children and one thing I’m most proud of, in my heart, are my children.

Forgiveness is that subtle thread that binds both love and friendship. Without forgiveness, you may not even have a child one day.

Just look at the great Nelson Mandela. He came out of prison and saved his entire country. Some of the best people in the world have spent time in prison.

There’s more to boxing than hitting. There’s not getting hit, for instance.

The referee is going to be the most important person in the ring tonight besides the fighters.

My kids idea of a hard life is to live in a house with only one phone.

When I was a boxer, I wanted to be champion of the world, not the richest man in the world.

Sure the fight was fixed. I fixed it with a right hand.

You never help others by allowing them to getaway with giving less than their best efforts.

Boxing is the sport to which all other sports aspire.

The age of 40 is not a death sentence.

And I can’t die easy thinking maybe the menfolks white or black is making a spit cup out of you. Have some sympathy for me. Put me down easy, Janie, I’m a cracked plate.

Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out. Maybe it’s some place way off in de ocean where de black man is in power, but we don’t know nothin’ but what we see.

Night came walking through Egypt swishing her black dress.

I have black friends, but I don’t just hang out with black kids. I might pull up with Indian kids, white kids, black kids, whatever.

Jealousy is perhaps the most involuntary of all strong emotions. It steals consciousness, it lies deeper than thought. It is always there, like a blackness in the eye, it discolours the world.

I used to get letters saying, ‘I didn’t know black children and white children were the same.’

How many thick black women are there singing whatever I’m singing, surrounded by rappers, but also from the suburbs? I can’t really judge someone else for judging me!

I performed in high school for Black History Month at a talent show, but besides that, I didn’t have the resources to perform so I spent my time as a teenager writing music.