I was never ignorant, as far as being experienced in classrooms and learning about different subjects and actually soaking it up, so I checked into college for a little bit. I took classes at a community college in West L.A. I took psychology, English, and philosophy.

As I got older, my pops tried to keep me involved with the culture by telling me the stories of the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, how he came to America, and about our family back home, because all that side of my family - my aunties, grandparents - is in Africa.

When you talk about black entrepreneurship, you're talking about addressing the foundation of what's going on with our people when we don't have any financial power. Our basic needs aren't being met in a lot of cases, so there's no way we're going to be able to tap into our potential until we address those bottom-level base needs.

Being self-made means never making an excuse as to why you can't take steps toward whatever your goal is.

I have to believe SF writers will continue to inspire the public to have faith in - to demand! - a future that is at least as big and bold as the past.

To call myself a fighter is to be selfish at times. It makes me resent my opponent. That's motivation I can tap into.

My folks had a lot of Motown records, so that was a kind of an early inspiration. I grew up on the radio really.

The male muse is an unaccountably rare thing in art. Where does that leave female artists looking for inspiration?