Rodney King

What I've learned to do is arrest my addiction - arrest it myself, so I don't get arrested.

Over the years, a lot of rappers - Lil' Wayne, Ice Cube - have used my name in their songs. I'm a real touchstone of history.

As a black man, you run from the cops. It's different now, but back when I was coming up, you run.

Nice guys just don't finish first in the music industry.

Anybody can get bigheaded once they know the seat cannot be pulled out from under them.

For a long time, sure, I was letting the pressure of being Rodney King get to me. It ain't easy. Even now, I walk into a place wondering, 'What people are thinking? Do they know who I am? What do they think about what happened? Do they blame me for the all those people who died?'

I sometimes feel like I'm caught in a vise. Some people feel like I'm some kind of hero. Others hate me.

I had to learn to forgive. I couldn't sleep at night. I got ulcers. I had to let go, to let God deal with it. No one wants to be mad in their own house. I didn't want to be angry my whole life. It takes so much energy out of you to be mean.

I tell myself time heals. It really does.

I know and value what it means to wake up and be alive and to share my story. I'm so blessed to be here and to be able to talk about it.

It's not painful to relive it. I'm comfortable with my position in American history.

We wouldn't be as far along as a country if we didn't take on some of Martin Luther King's ways that he instilled in us.

When I leave here, when my final day on this earth is up, I want to leave in peace. I want to have peace in my heart.

The trouble that they see me in is a part of my life that I'm working on.

I saw my hometown burning that day.

Waking up sober is a good day. I love being able to wake up and do positive things, to go to the gym.

People look at me like I should have been like Malcolm X or Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks. I should have seen life like that and stay out of trouble, and don't do this and don't do that. But it's hard to live up to some people's expectations.

I don't see how you can grow as a world without being able to get along with people. So many people is hating out there and it's not making a difference.

Obama, he wouldn't have been in office without what happened to me and a lot of black people before me. He would never have been in that situation, no doubt in my mind. He would get there eventually, but it would have been a lot longer. So I am glad for what I went through. It opened the doors for a lot of people.

It's happening right now... it's just not on film, it's not being recorded.