Growing up in inner-city neighborhoods, there's a particular structure, which I'm sure is true of most social contexts. The type of person you are determines the role you play.

My stepdad didn't have a father growing up, so he didn't know how to have a father-son style conversation. Plus, we had a tense relationship in which he never really offered me advice.

My graduation was an amazing moment for my family, my community. In my early childhood, we lived on a subsidized income, with government assistance - at one point when I was growing up, my mother was making $14,000 a year. Now I had made it out of the hood, so to speak.

Moving forward, hopefully the platform my career has given me will allow me to continue to be a voice in culture, whether that's doing lectures on campus or writing books or whatever that looks like. I feel like that's really the lane that I uniquely connect with.

I would say that I definitely became much more religious. They say there are no atheists in foxholes, and this stroke put me into a very deep foxhole. Yet that feeling of faith sustained me, so I have no feelings of anger or regret.

God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.

Jesus' sinless life was given as a gift to the world - the ultimate gift. Some would receive Him, and others wouldn't. Nonetheless, He continues to be our gift, and His life and death makes it possible for His children to receive eternal life with Him. That's a reason to give God glory.

The artist must be in his work as God is in creation, invisible and all-powerful; one must sense him everywhere but never see him.