I do have characters who are more well known than I am, which suits me fine.

I like New York because you're kind of forced to smell everybody else's funk. So it keeps you biologically attached to the world around you.

When you go to a restaurant, the less you know about what happens in the kitchen, the more you enjoy your meal.

I like to do theater and hopefully be effective. Most actors, at least contemporary actors of my generation, can't do it. They don't have the chops.

I think I was afraid of what I might say when I got onto someone's stage or in front of someone's camera.

Shaft was a pop culture figure along t he lines of, I guess, Dirty Harry - except that he wasn't as much of a racist. So yeah, I was always a fan.

The reason why things work is because of love.

Well, I like to be kept on my toes. I look for a challenge. I don't like to recreate steps that I've already walked. I like to see if I can create something new.

As much as we teach our kids, the process teaches us. If we're being diligent, we're learning from our strengths as parents, but also from the mistakes that we make.

New York is the greatest character actor ever. Any film that is shot in New York is elevated by the city.

You're a master on blues piano. The real deal.

Do you see? The story I have to tell is so small, of the people who stayed when everyone else fled.

You could sit around and feel sorry for yourself or you can go out and do things for others.

One can lie with the mouth, but with the accompanying grimace one nevertheless tells the truth.

Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own intelligence!

One must stand stiller than still. On reverse time travel.

By seeking and blundering we learn.

Keep a cow, and then the milk won't have to be watered but once.

You can't live in the past, there's nothing you can do about it.

Just like the car headlights impressively illuminating the dark streets, wisdom words powerfully enlighten the dark minds!

How was it possible to wake up every day and be recognizable to another when so often one was barely recognizable to oneself?