There's a time when it was an event for a black person to be on television. Where black households would gather around, 'Oh, you know, Sammy Davis is going to be on 'All in the Family' tonight! Let's go check it out!' It was a big, big thing.
Any great art is meant to illuminate the human condition.
I think I'll never stop doing theater because it's a more physical and athletic activity. You can't pull any punches; there are no short cuts, and you have to be physically present and committed. I love the excitement and the response of being in front of a live audience.
I lived in St. Louis, Missouri, and now my kids are growing up in Los Angeles, so that's culturally very different.
There is a reason that many African Americans have a healthy mistrust for law enforcement. We don't always feel protected or served by that particular institution.
Life has to be everything. It can't be all sad. It can't be all peaches and cream. Because the lows have you appreciate the highs. And the highs give you perspective on the lows. If it's not everything, it becomes flat or mundane.
Don't become too attached to your own myopia. Just because you've found a way to do things doesn't mean it's the way to do things. There are so many different ways in which to navigate this so-called life. Be open to experiencing more than one.
A couple of my favorite actors are Don Cheadle, Jeffrey Wright, and, may he rest in peace, Philip Seymour Hoffman. I've had an opportunity to see all of them onscreen and onstage.
On Twitter, there'll be fans of 'Army Wives' and people who say, 'I've been following you since 'Supernatural,' I loved you on 'Person of Interest,'' and it's really cool to get that love. To them, I'm not just an overnight success.
I can't wait to see little white kids dressing up as Black Panther.
When I finally got the chance to do 'The People v. O.J. Simpson,' my peers embraced me with the same attitude. They didn't make me feel small or insignificant. They treated me as a peer. It was a wonderful experience.
I always thought that I would just be working in obscurity in perpetuity.
Being in a Marvel film is the pinnacle of secrecy training.
I'm a huge fan of 'Predator.'
I went to a college prep high school in St. Louis, Missouri. When I graduated from school, I owned this thing called the Headmaster's Cup, and the Headmaster's Cup is for the student who exemplifies the spirit of the institution and is recognized by the faculty and administration.
The prism through which you experience life is so unique. There is no objective experience.
I think what Hollywood is learning at large is that there is profitability in stories that are culturally specific and that you can only address the universal through the specific.
There's something frightening that comes with freedom. And there was something very frightening for a lot of slaves once they were free and were going through Reconstruction. It was like, what do you do now? There was nothing set up.
Understand what you want, and want it as badly as you can. Make the stakes for yourself as life-or-death as you can.
When I got into Stanford in high school, I had some friends from school who told me that I just got in because I was black and whatnot.
