I came up to New York at 20 with a suitcase and a ceramic tiger. That was my one piece of furniture and I wanted to save it.

I had a very crazy aunt and uncle who we traded my brother Webster to for a Siamese cat. It was heaven to live with my aunt and uncle because you got spoiled to death.

I'm very close to my parents and we built a sailboat together when I was growing up. We're partners.

I was named after the next-door neighbor's German shepherd. It was either that or Cadillac Smith.

I was the only guy who is referred to as Mr. Smith in the New York Times and in the same week as Sexy Rexy in some teen magazine.

My father always said, 'It ain't bragging if it's true.'

I can get into politics. I'm a pretty straight guy for this business. I have a pretty healthy outlook.

It used to be that a movie star would have a 20-year career. Now if you get three to five years, you're lucky.

Everything is disposable now: disposable lighters, disposable blades, disposable stars. They inflate you up for one big deal and then they look for someone else.

I have long-range plans, but you always have to wait for business to catch up with you. It's a matter of contracts and meetings catching up with your ideas of what you want to accomplish in life.

I'm too much of a planner. I would have been a dentist; that's what I was thinking of being. Dr. Rex, open wide and say "Ah." I think I'd look good in a smock.

There is adventure in finding compelling stories and exploring complex issues in challenging environments, but there is also a responsibility to tell those stories accurately and objectively.

If the goal is doing good stuff and working with your friends ... if you’re doing that then you’re succeeding.

From its inception by Michael Bennett, 'Dreamgirls' has always been an epic story with an ensemble cast. I didn't change that. The screen version remains, really, a group story.

The Palio is shrouded in mystery and secrecy, and the players can't discuss their devious schemes.

I’m honored if I can inspire somebody else.

A mystic is a person who sees the facts as inadequate.

If movies have to satisfy every possible quadrant before they're even made, they're dull. You only get great things when people overreach themselves.

You white folks see UFOs in your dreams. You don't hear about Martians in Harlem.

Estragon: I can't go on like this. Vladimir: That's what you think.

My heart hasn't beat in almost ninety years but this was different it was like my heart was gone like I was hallow like I'd left everything here with you.