I can only speak for myself, but when I was growing up in Memphis - and having the Martin Luther King holiday and the moment of pause on April 4th - he was just a statue to me. I wanted to make him a little bit more real to me as a human being.

We expect our leaders to be godlike. But I feel that when people try to sanctify leadership, it puts it out of the realm of regular people. And that's where the greatest leaders come from - from the people.

In order to be great, you just have to care. You have to care about your world, community, and equality.

I grew up playing with kids from Hurt Village, playing with kids from other housing projects, Lamar Terrace, because my grandmother lived in that particular area. So, I always wondered how I would have turned out if I would have lived in that particular given circumstance.

Death is a fearful thing.

Until late in life, I was never quite good enough for my father, and I suppose that is part of what drives me even now, well after his death in 1992.

Gracious dying is a huge, macabre and expensive joke on the American public.

It's one of the things that 'Everwood' - what makes a great 'Everwood' episode is when it makes you laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time. From the first season, we've always had the chance to deal with death in a very real way, in a way that a lot of other shows can't or don't.