Within the theater lies the power to stimulate and alter the hearts and minds of both the privileged and those who have too long been denied.
We must celebrate difference until difference doesn't make a difference in the way we treat each other.
I know that no matter what is said about Martin the King Jr., what he contributed, what he gave, what he meant, what he means all over this planet cannot be tarnished.
A feeling of self worth is the best accomplishment we can foster in our prisons.
Really just about the only remembrance I have from when I was very young is the way Daddy used to place me on the refrigerator and then say, 'Jump!' and I'd jump into his arms. It was so much fun for me that even when I got too large for it to happen, I still wanted to do it anyway!
One of my main reasons for going to college is to try to get a liberal arts background.
And you don't have to be a preacher to carry on. That's why I've gone into the theater, with my mother's blessings, and someday I may write, produce and act in my own story of daddy's life. There are so many sides to his story. I hope that someday I could get that opportunity.
Through the arts, you can impact upon people's attitudes, values, and understandings.
I have chosen to continue to promote 'we're one, the oneness of us,' and shine the spotlight, as my father did.
My mother supported me from the beginning and never said you should be an activist or civil rights leader or minister.
I struggled with a lot of the legacy for a long time, probably actually into my 30s before I really made peace with it.
At 16, I went to Smith College in Massachusetts and that was right after the peak of the civil-rights movement and all the rest. It was an era when students were making demands and many black students were closer to the teachings of Malcolm X, or what they thought were his teachings.
I will never grow up. Everyone wants to tell me how to live my life.
In life, I had to be prim and proper and poised - The King Daughter. But acting, I could be the zany, silly, sometimes foolish person that I am. I could let the raw edges show.
Til I was about eight or nine, I had no awareness he was anybody special. Since all our friends were in the movement, I thought what Daddy did was natural. Everybody went to jail, right? Then, one day some kids at school called my daddy a jailbird, and it upset me. That was the beginning of my awareness.
You see, for the most part it was a normal upbringing. Sure, there was the Nobel Peace award; sure, there were people coming to our house who I knew were famous. But we grew up in a very modest part of the community. Our last home was in what had been one of the worst ghettos in Atlanta.
I wrote my first play when I was eight. It was about a queen, and I - of course! - was the queen.
Given my belief that there is a divine purpose for my father's life on this planet, given the way I was raised, it's real hard to get angry. I get that from my daddy.
As soon as people heard me speak, they would compare me to my father. My siblings had the same kind of pressure.
I found myself trying to be all things to all people. I felt a tremendous sense of responsibility and the pressure of expectation.
