"Bill Clinton is like a lot of white politicians. They eat soul food, they party with black women, they play the saxophone, but when it comes to domestic and foreign policy, they make the same decisions that are destructive to African people in this country and throughout the world."

"Racism is a system of power and in the absence of power you cannot be considered a racist."

"[David Mills:] Even the people themselves who were perpetrating that violence, did they think that was wise? Was that a wise reasoned action? Sister Souljah: Yeah, it was wise. I mean, if black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people? In other words, white people, this government and that mayor were well aware of the fact that black people were dying every day in Los Angeles under gang violence. So if you're a gang member and you would normally be killing somebody, why not kill a white person? Do you think that somebody thinks that white people are better, are above and beyond dying, when they would kill their own kind?"

"Her comments before and after Los Angeles were filled with a kind of hatred that you do not honor today and tonight.… If you took the words "white" and "black," and you reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech."

"Souljah was not born to make white people feel comfortable. I am African first! I am black first! I want what's good for me and my people first."

"If there are [any good white people], I haven't met them. Where are they?"

"My definition of "good" is that you understand that this is a question of power, that you be willing to give up some power, that you be willing to give up some resources, that you be willing to pay black people reparations for our years and years of service in this country, that you be willing to go home and tell your white mother and father about white racism and how it affects and kills black people in our communities. That's my definition of good white people and I haven't met any like that."

"Yes he’s a provocateur if you like, but the underlying message is very rarely ‘life’s rubbish and you’re all a bunch of sharks’. And I think that is a reflection of Martin’s belief in the better side of people."

"He’s seeking to move beyond simple messages to something which provokes in the viewer a new sense of themselves and their place in the world."

"Artists have different materials they work with, and for Martin it’s words."

"Many will support Firrell’s aims… the combined effect of words, visuals and soundtrack is powerful… Firrell, an artist based in the city, is renowned for text pieces like this."

"Firrell has reinvented poetry for the 21st Century."

"It is so deep, it’s so impressive, it goes straight to your heart."

"With his geisha-white complexion and vivid blue eyes, he is a touch of exotica even in the colourful world of Soho."

"One of the capital's most influential public artists."

"I like words on public buildings and Firrell is a master of gauging their power."

"The one irreducible truth about humanity is diversity."

"Martin Firrell is my favourite public artist."

"I want to live in a city where the people who make the rules have to live by them."

"I want to live in a city where dissent is welcomed as much as it's disliked."

"How rare that an artist should make something which forces us to think, and encourages us to stop and think, to question why we behave the way we do."

"I want to live in a city where half the people in charge are women."

"All men are dangerous."

"Security is no replacement for liberty."

"If obedience invariably leads to cruelty, disobedience is our moral duty."

"I want to live in a city where immigration is seen as a new source of strength."

"What a good thing (Firrell) is for this world of ours."

"Power is always temporary."

"God is a concept."

"Not power not cruelty not death not winning not fighting not money not oil not war not sex not tyranny: all tyrants fall."

"Organised religion is something I find hard to follow."

"The road to freedom is bordered with sunflowers."

"Every river can be crossed."

"A grave and sincere apology to the people of Iraq."

"Imagination has not saved us."

"This is the way the world really ends: not with whimper but a desperate chuckle."

"Everything turns only to memory."

"Rain has always been connected in my mind with kindness."

"Everything is resurrected in memory."

"You said in that moment on the beach you were entirely happy."

"The purpose of my life is to try out the ideas I have for it."

"There's an obligation to try every route to happiness."

"How about we have been dead and what we must do after we die? Why we go to the churches when we are living because I think the divines and Christs are dead in the churches and provide the services, cares and merrys on our lived people. And we received the peaceful mind from them and held a better life than before."

"Feeling is its own law and truth."

"There’s not a lesbian hero that everybody can relate to."

"Let’s speak of justice as present in the world, as independent and self-perpetuating."

"The bodily strength, the fierceness and beauty of young women."