Shabazz Quotes

#1. Don't be bitter. Remember Lot's wife when they kill me, and they surely will. You have to use all of your energy to do what it is you have to do. [To his wife Betty Shabazz]

Malcolm X

#2. You decide which ones makes more sense, which is more practical and more logical to accept.

Malik Zulu Shabazz

#3. When a photographer or a person sees your beauty, your inner beauty, it makes you feel special like, "Wow, someone saw that within me."

Jamel Shabazz

#4. Have I gotten any threats? All I get is threats. I get at least six or seven a day.

Betty Shabazz

#5. I place myself in situations where a lot of people are going to be, and bring a particular body of work that reflects the people already there. You have to study your subject.

Jamel Shabazz

#6. There is just something about the common being. My education pretty much came from the streets, just connecting with people, different cultures. I gained the wealth just engaging at that level. I'm still like that. I continue to document everyday people versus the stars.

Jamel Shabazz

#7. The images of war inspired me to create, to go to different situations and communities, to document the human side of people, to show a side that we don't see.

Jamel Shabazz

#8. Photography is humbling, it really is, and it really allows for me to atone for some of the missteps I've made throughout the course of my life.

Jamel Shabazz

#9. I do believe in angels and I believe that a lot of these people I'm supposed to meet. The photograph serves as evidence; it causes me to reflect on when I met this person.

Jamel Shabazz

#10. Closed mouths don't get fed, and I'm gonna eat every time I get on the court.

Shabazz Muhammad

#11. My explosiveness, I really couldn't show it at UCLA. It's still there. It's always been there. It was not a lot of running. It was a half-court game. Coach Howland came from the Big East, and so you know that's a grind out game.

Shabazz Muhammad

#12. I wish you power that equals your intelligence and your strength. I wish you success that equals your talent and determination. And I wish you faith.

Betty Shabazz

#13. Betty's a good Muslim woman and wife. I don't imagine many other women might put up with the way I am. Awakening this brainwashed black man and telling this arrogant, devilish white man the truth about himself, Betty understands, is a full-time job

Malcolm X

#14. I want to be an NBA all-star and help my team win. That's what it's all about, is winning. I'm a competitor ... People said a lot about me being selfish and stuff like that. Getting into the league, I can't wait to shut that down. I'm a guy who wants to play and to win and love my teammates.

Shabazz Muhammad

#15. I think that photography has allowed me to have a voice. I used to stutter, and once I overcame that struggle, it felt good to tell people they were beautiful and special.

Jamel Shabazz

#16. I think that's what the war photography did for me. It showed me the human side of people and how certain circumstances can change people's lives.

Jamel Shabazz

#17. She's the sort of girl who gets high easily, off the music, off a moment. Maybe I was like that when I first came down the Hill. All wide-eyed and trying to take it all in. Everything was exciting.

Ilyasah Shabazz

#18. I wanted to go amongst gangbangers, to understand this war they were fighting amongst each other. I wanted to document it, [also] to show the human side of it.

Jamel Shabazz

#19. Love yourself, appreciate yourself, see the good in you ... and respect yourself.

Betty Shabazz

#20. If 3,000 people perished in the World Trade Center attacks and the Jewish population is 10 percent, you show me records of 300 Jewish people dying in the World Trade Center ... We're daring anyone to dispute its truth. They got their people out.

Malik Zulu Shabazz

#21. When I approach a person, I feel a certain way. If I don't feel that way, I'm not going to approach that individual. "I see something in you" - I want the person to know that.

Jamel Shabazz

#22. Poetic passion leaps from the depths of the soul to ignite the world...

Akilah Shabazz

#23. Find the good and celebrate it.

Betty Shabazz

#24. For me, the stars are the invisible people on the street that people don't really get a chance to know.

Jamel Shabazz

#25. For the most part, as a society, we are not happy with ourselves.

Jamel Shabazz

#26. When you look at my photos, just look into the eyes of my subjects. The eyes say so much.

Jamel Shabazz

#27. The majority of the people I've taken photographs of, I've had conversations with. "What are your goals and aspirations?" "What are you about?" It's not just about me capturing the image; I want to know what you are about.

Jamel Shabazz

#28. I'm not cocky at all. You ask anybody, I'm one of the nicest guys. I try to be as humble as I can, but if you work hard, sometimes you know that you earned more respect.

Shabazz Muhammad

#29. Most people cant' deal with reality, but indulge heavily in fantasy and fear.

Betty Shabazz

#30. I looked over and saw this man on the extreme right aisle sort of galloping to the podium. He was tall, he was thin, and the way he was galloping it looked as though he was going someplace much more important than the podium.

Betty Shabazz

#31. Two young doctors - one from Harvard and the other from Dartmouth - invited me to go to Mecca in my husband's stead. And that is what helped put me back on track.

Betty Shabazz

#32. My camera is my compass; it's guided me to so many different places.

Jamel Shabazz

#33. Yet Betty would learn among the black Muslims that any black person clever or lucky enough to reach adulthood must choose between slumber and strugle.

Russell J. Rickford

#34. I remember growing up and hearing the word "ugly" a lot. "I'm ugly." "She ugly." "He ugly." I hated it then, and I hate it now. I go past physical beauty; I tell people they have a beautiful spirit and that is something different.

Jamel Shabazz

#35. In the NBA, you can't run from guys. I think a lot of teams were surprised by my interviews, how nice and well-spoken I am as a player and as a person. I'm a guy who wants to learn.

Shabazz Muhammad

#36. Life is not a destination; it is a journey. Faith makes everything possible. In order to succeed in life, we must first believe that we can.

Ilyasah Shabazz

#37. Philip Jones Griffith documented the Vietnam War, and through his images that were published in Time Life Magazine, it showed me the horrors of war and at that time, I wanted to be a war photographer, based off his work.

Jamel Shabazz

#38. Sometimes we are just divided, but we still, for the most part, we have similar hopes and dreams.

Jamel Shabazz

#39. I read a recent statistic that eighty-seven percent of women are dissatisfied with themselves, and over forty-seven percent of men. My work is visu-medicine to heal people and see beauty within people.

Jamel Shabazz

#40. Malcolm was a firm believer in the value and importance of our heritage. He believed that we have valuable and distinct cultural traditions which need to be institutionalized so that they can be passed on to our heirs.

Betty Shabazz

#41. The photograph is to a great degree evidence of the conversation I had with the person. It's a part of my visual diary.

Jamel Shabazz

#42. What I strive to do through my work, is to teach compassion. You need to have a lot of it, in this day and time, and it's lacking.

Jamel Shabazz