I seem to have to make my characters family before I can access their hearts in any way that matters.

Migration gives a blank cheque to put anything you don't feel like addressing in the memory hold. No neighbours can go against the monster narrative of your family.

I don't think you can be from the Caribbean and not know a certain amount about the apocalypse.

The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time. Always listen to the art.

Sometimes you just have to try, even if you know it won’t work.

She's applying her lipstick; I've always believed that the universe invented the color red solely for Latinas.

If you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level any reflection of themselves

We get these lives for free. I didn't do anything to get this life, and no matter what the hardships are, it is free and, in a way, it's an extraordinary bargain.

Colleagues are a wonderful thing - but mentors, that's where the real work gets done.

I think the average guy thinks they're pro-woman, just because they think they're a nice guy and someone has told them that they're awesome. But the truth is far from it.

[Donald] Trump is taking America's dirty laundry to the center stage. Everything he does, the rest of the country already does really well: victimize immigrants, poor people, women.

Never set limits when you are loving someone.

Sometimes failing gives you the opportunity to build a better foundation.

We cannot close ourselves off to information and ignore the fact that millions of people are out there suffering.

Life is something you can't borrow and give back; Here today and gone tomorrow...just like that.

The political spectrum is not linear but circular. In my experience the extreme left always ends up rubbing shoulders with the extreme right. They are philosophically blood brothers.

There is nothing but nonviolence to fall back upon for retaining our freedom, even as we had to do for gaining it.

Neurotics make poor patriots; if you're ashamed of something as big as yourself, it's hard to be proud of something as small as your country.

Among the attributes of God, although they are equal, mercy shines with even more brilliance than justice.

But the validity of a doctrine does not depend on whose ox it gores.

I'm more critical of the films I make than anyone else.