As a director, I try not to implement a way for working, for every single actor, across the board. I try to work with each one, on an individual basis.

Sometimes identity can be your salvation. It can be liberating to find your place in the world, but at some point, identity can hold you back.

As a person of color, I was just really tired of the fact that I wasn't seeing my story in the culture.

America is a different country, and it will forever be a different country, after the election of Donald Trump.

I love the art house, and when I say the art house, I don't just mean little, independent movies but movies that really aim to be about something and say something and I love those movies.

It is frustrating having to walk through America having to bob and weave people's impressions of me because they see a tall, black guy walking down the street. That is frustrating.

I love when scenes are intentionally and meticulously planned so we feel like this is a handcrafted scene that only works in this moment and this movie, and that's the way I approach my films.

Racism is wrong, racism is very dangerous.

If the characters [in a movie] aren't real, if their lives aren't realistic, if you call bullshit at any point in their journey, then the rest of it is invalid.

Unfortunately, 'post racism' is also a myth, like unicorns and black people who survive to the end of a horror movie.

Great minds are always feared by lesser minds.

The things that make me different are the things that make me.

History and experience tell us that moral progress comes not in comfortable and complacent times, but out of trial and confusion.

According to Inuit culture in Greenland, a person possesses six or seven souls. The souls take the form of tiny people scattered throughout the body.

Today I would say, 'I am against plastic surgery.' It's a grave act. An act that touches our soul. It was frightening.

Ever since 'Lassie' and 'Old Yeller', I won't watch animal movies. Animals in movies always die.

Sometimes living takes more courage than dying.

The great task of our time is to build a global society, where people can live together in peace

So much better to write pen on paper; you can do it anywhere, say, while stuck at the airport.

Hope is the power that gives a person the confidence to step out and try.