"I'm a gift from God. I'm a blessing from heaven. I'm a miracle from above."

"I'm just trying to make a living, trying to do my best."

"I'm a living legend. I'm a living icon. I'm a living myth."

"I had to learn how to be a man, and the way I learned how to be a man was to learn how to be a black man. And that's a hard thing to do in America."

"You can't sit down and wait for somebody to say who you are. You need to write it and paint it and do it."