I was black growing up in an all-white neighborhood, so I felt like I just didn't fit in. Like I wasn't as good as everybody else, or as smart, or whatever.

I'm learning to accept the lack of privacy as the real downer in my profession.

It is very hard to separate one's self from a character. Sometimes the people closest to me have to be very understanding.

Throughout my career I have been talked out of things I wanted to do, and when I look back, I think I should have followed my instincts.

Our nation's commitment is to provide a quality education to every child to serve the public common good. Accordingly, we must shift the paradigm to think of education funding as investments made in individual children, not in institutions or buildings.

My mother is an artist, my father an entrepreneur.

I weave the company into what we laughingly call 'Jack's novel.' I write this novel for them about who they are and what's going on in their world. When I had 90 people in 'Porgy and Bess,' each had a story, history and family relationship.

When my mother and father fell in love, my mother's family would never accept it.