New Year’s Eve Ball Drop

“Jackson has inspired debate over his cosmetic decisions because the residue of the ’60s black nationalism and the condescension of those who would pity or mock black Americans have met over the issue of his face, his skin tone, his hair”

“Detroit is a city whose horror reaches cinematic proportions, like 'The Living Dead Wear Kangols and Filas.' However you like your chiller theater, Detroit is the worst because it’s real.”

“Dear reader, we begin a collaboration, which may go on for three weeks, three months, or, Lord forbid, for three-and-thirty years. I have only one prayer — that I weary of you before you tire of me”

“Woodward is hardly trying to cripple a presiden­cy. (He's already done that, right?) But like his fellow perma­nent Washingtonians, he thinks it only fitting to put Clinton in his place”

“Nobody who played jazz was considered able to walk in and do a studio call. They were convinced you couldn't read, or you wouldn't show up, or you'd fall down drunk”

“Drugs became his escape hatch and his prison. As his In Our Lifetime so brazenly articulates, the devil was after his soul and damned if he wasn’t determined to win”