AFENI SHAKUR

I think people have gotten to know Tupac much better since he's been gone than they did when he was here.

Revolution is Tupac showing a young artist that he can scribble in a notebook and it's worth a lot.

The Woodruff Library Archives has done a phenomenal job archiving my son's materials.

Nelson Mandela's contribution to the people of South Africa has been immeasurable and I look forward to helping with his work all over the country.

I'm grateful my son was - as any mother would say, I had a very good son.

People can like him or not like him individually. But I need for them to know that he was a person of substance, and he was worthy, and he was a good son and a good brother and a good participant in the community.

The worst thing that can happen to you is if you don't take responsibility for what you did wrong.

I believe it is our responsibility to make sure that Tupac's entire body of work is made available for his fans.

I have respect for my son because he had sense enough to take responsibility for his own actions.

Anger is an all-consuming fire that will burn you and everyone else around you. Where is the justice in that?

When Tupac turned thirteen, we were homeless on that day. His theater club gave him a party. Sometimes I do wonder that if I hadn't gone on with fool-heartedness, my son would have had an easier transition into this life. But at least I was able to keep art there. Otherwise he would've had no way to get his feelings out.

We must recognize that anger only agitates and incites. It cannot squelch or satisfy the hunger for justice.

I think that Tupac was the trendsetter, the high mark. What we hope his music will continue to do is to at least encourage people away from mediocrity, because he was not a mediocre artist. When he was alive, people competed. There was a lot of competition, and a lot of the artists were better for it.

Arts can save children, no matter what's going on in their homes.

We cannot go anywhere with anger that we haven't already been.

I spent 43 years of my life in anger and I know what it can do... Now I pray a lot. I do whatever I need to do to keep me out of that anger, out of that place where I can't grow and be better.

That's what Tupac and I got from my dad - the rebellion and the need to fight back and be recognized for being different.

I wake up every day and think everything sure is awful, but then I ask the Lord what I can do to make it better.

I never wanted to he just a housewife. I was too restless.

In the 1960s, the civil rights movement was about getting to know your culture, your history. I know all about my history.

First of all, a lot of people, a lot of women and men, have lost their children. I'm not the only one. But I happen to be blessed that my son gave me all these things to work with so that I get to work out my grief in a way that other people are not able to. So I can't possibly be downtrodden about that.

That's just the way life is. We have to be willing to pay the price. You have to be willing to pay the price for what's right - and for what we do wrong. That's one of the things that I love about my son. My son was always willing to take his weight.

I miss my son every day a little bit more, but I thank God every day for every second that he was here.

That's what people are who have that impact on us. They are ahead of their time. They can't help it. They get put into a small, frail body, and they are given a light that is much too bright for that cavity.

That's what art is for me. It helps you maintain hope by giving you the ability to either create outside your reality, or to describe your reality.