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.

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 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.

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.

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.

For the wages of sin is Death, but the gift of God is everlasting Life in Christ Jesus or LORD.

Negro Slavery is an evil of Colossal magnitude and I am utterly averse to the admission of Slavery into the Missouri Territories.

I tend to be not my own best company. I can get a little lost when - if I don't have my work to occasionally focus me.

I am still mostly a moron, I do get into bad moods, I am not a perfected being.

I wanted to play a good guy after doing this lunatic on The Sopranos for two years. And then they did the sequel to Bad Boys, where I get to play the barking captain again.

Have confidence in yourself and don't let people put you down or make you feel weak or worthless, because the more they put you down, the more you need to get back up and prove how wrong they are.

Among creatures born into chaos, a majority will imagine an order, a minority will question the order, and the rest will be pronounced insane.

If reality had a stage door I'd hang around there to see what comes out after the show.

Without the necessary humility to worship, I subconsciously desired to be worshiped, not in a crazy Napoleanic manner, but like a modern-day celebrity.