When I was a kid, we said that we were precluded from going to certain neighborhoods because of the color of our skin… Now the neighborhoods are the neighborhoods of ideas, you’re not supposed to be there because … of the color of your skin.”

People get bent out of shape about the fact that when I was a kid, you could not drink out of certain water fountains. Well, the water was the same.

You're the first kid on the block when you come into some of these neighborhoods and it's not always easy. There will have to be a little bit of accommodation from both the newcomers and the people already there.

When you look at where the real problems are among minorities in our society, particularly blacks, it's at the bottom. It's the people who are in school systems that don't educate, neighborhoods where there is a lot of crime, drugs, the whole bit.

It's fascinating that people, there's so many people now who will make judgments based on what you look like. I'm black. So I'm supposed to think a certain way. I'm supposed to have certain opinions. I don't do that. You don't create a box and put people in and then make a lot of generalizations about them.

I could look and tell you something was a certain color; but it would just be a blur. And everything was just so bright. It's difficult to describe; but everything was so bright that it was nauseating and it would make me dizzy.