Failure: Is it a limitation? Bad timing? It's a lot of things. It's something you can't be afraid of, because you'll stop growing. The next step beyond failure could be your biggest success in life.

In places in the world where we don't speak the same language, or even understand that we pray to the same God, we dance to the same beat, that is the ONE.

But out of limitations comes creativity.

Be true. Be beautiful. Be free. In the midst of segregation and racism Mamma raised us to be independent and free. We saw ourselves as citizens of the world, not of a block.

I'm driven by passion. I mean, I am tired right now. I work to a point of abandon. I am fueled by my understanding of the need for self-expression that exists for young people.

Michael Ralph brilliantly plays the street prophet, a West Indian who foreshadows the Harlem riot.

You have to examine a scene on the page first. Then you get into the basics of acting: Who are you? Who are you talking to? How do you feel about that person?

If you just change one person's life, you feel like you've done something. But if you can change a whole lot of them and get them looking at themselves differently, it's amazing.

I'm always moving forward.

I design my shots. I walk the rehearsal as the camera and say 'this is where I want to be... I want this look.

I think a good director casts a film so that the actors bring a lot to the table.

Hope is a great expectancy.

Scars are something of a body’s memoir.

A knight can fight. As you well know, I fight about as well as a pillow.""That's an insult to pillows. At least they can take a beating.

You know, every time a summer movie comes out, people think they're gonna get rich off of the merchandise.

If you fight back and get hit, it hurts a little while; if you dont fight back it hurts forever.

I would tell myself the same thing that I continue to tell myself today, which is don't sweat the small things.

I became a filmmaker because I wanted to deal with issues that intrigued me, that I thought were pertinent, that would start dialogue.

A request not to worry is perhaps the least soothing message capable of human utterance.

What I'm trying to do is be as honest as I can, and I don't normally do that.

People are often enamored with my Super Bowl ring. But it's my wedding ring that I'm most proud of. And having a good marriage takes even more work than winning a Super Bowl.