“It is so sad that it takes so long for people to understand what needs...” — Faith Ringgold Quote

It is so sad that it takes so long for people to understand what needs to happen in order to be free.

I don't think you can create art out of anger; it has to come out of some form of understanding. You have to feel good about who you are and that you could do something to change things.

The reason why I began making quilts is because I wrote my autobiography in 1980 and couldn't get it published because I wanted to tell my story, and my story didn't appear to be appropriate for African-American women.

I was functioning in a time when people were struggling, and they knew they had to struggle, and I was a part of that struggle. It wasn't just women.

I don't have any problem with being the guy whose album people put on when they're feeling sad.

I don't have many sad days.

In Britten or Berg, there's a tension between the sweet and the sour, between the familiar and the unfamiliar, the tonal and the atonal, the happy and the sad. That, to me, is what all western art is about - that tension. It's why we want to say anything at all.

Some people can just let things go, but I can't, especially if there's something that worries me or makes me sad.

That is sad until one recalls how many bad books the world may yet be spared because of the busyness of writers.