In this life struggle here I am among you fully cognizant that a true believer has no fear of what God has ordained for him. Those who are visited by fear live only for their present under the illusion that the world began with them and will end with their departure.

When I came to New York I began to meet the people who became the most famous artists of our time. I was insecure about my own level of ability I didn't know whether I could compete with these people and at the same time. I was wondering what is this anyway?

The breakdown of the black community in order to maintain slavery began with the breakdown of the black family. Men and women were not legally allowed to get married because you couldn't have that kind of love. It might get in the way of the economics of slavery. Your children could be taken from you and literally sold down the river.

Seven and half years ago I began my own journey. For me and my family it was a time of adversity. But during that adversity I derived a deeper faith. And born out of that adversity was a commitment to devote myself to those people and to those issues that truly matter to me.

I began revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again I do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action.

Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

You can use your means in a good and bad way. In German-speaking art we had such a bad experience with the Third Reich when stories and images were used to tell lies. After the war literature was careful not to do the same which is why writers began to reflect on the stories they told and to make readers part of their texts. I do the same.

I decided that now is the time to start doing the things that really interest me and I find important. It was in the 10 years of the MacArthur grant that I began working on my first book... and I began putting more work into environmental history.

The modern assault on the environment began about 50 years ago during and immediately after World War II.

I would have been about seven years old when the formative years of my competitive football education began. I was playing in the local leagues around Manchester playing against lads from tough areas who had been taught they had to fight for everything.

Delaware State began as a school bent on service - teaching education social services and nursing.

By education most have been misled So they believe because they were bred. The priest continues where the nurse began And thus the child imposes on the man.

If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence it is India.

As I watched bookstores close I began to wonder how that felt for the owners. Owning a bookstore was their dream and now they're struggling and seeing those dreams fall apart.

I began my career with infantile dreams of becoming a composer.

When I began to choreograph and find my way pulling other artists' dreams out and changing music in a visual way there was still a part of me that had something more to say. There was still a desire to rock a stage and ultimately perform the eight count of my dream but there was a lot of insecurity there.

When I was younger I wasn't concentrating on good days. I was managing a career and trying to have a good year. It would always 'lead' to something which never leads to anything except death where everything leads to. And then as I got older and then I had my kids and everything I began to appreciate a great Wednesday.