I think Dad wanted to feel the pain, to feel his body cry, an urgent reminder that he was still alive. I pretended not to notice.

Individually, every grain of sand brushing against my hands represents a story, an experience, and a block for me to build upon for the next generation.

Globalization by the way of McDonald’s and KFC has captured the hearts, the minds, and from what I can see through the window, the growing bellies of the folks here.

Foisting an identity on people rather than allowing them the freedom and space to create their own is shady.

The truth is usually left for us to hunt and gather independently, if we are so inclined.

Are Latino-Americans white? Black? Other? Illegal aliens from Mars? Or are we the very face of America?

I have never bought into the idea that blood is thicker than water. Love and respect are meant to be earned from our children, our spouses, our families, and our friends.

When we illuminate the road back to our ancestors, they have a way of reaching out, of manifesting themselves...sometimes even physically.

This thing I am feeling, I’m almost certain, is the closest I’ll ever come to standing somewhere in between truth and reconciliation.

Even the juncture in history and the zeitgeist we live in is something we choose, setting the scene for the spiritual fodder we need to grow and achieve deeper elevation of our souls.

While America will always, I think, feel foreign to me, New York City is my home. This is where I can construct my own identity freely and reject labels imposed on me.

Hitherto, the rights and wrongs had seemed so beautifully simple.

Anyone can life to you face, and you would believe them because you trusted them.

And he ate up all her vision, as he had done the first day she saw him so long ago.

It’s a father’s place to hate the son-in-law. It’s our place to put them through h*ll just to make sure they know what they’re doing.

Knowledge of the past and of the places of the earth is the ornament and food of the mind of man.

I'm so happy after such a long struggle to be living my true self.

Prayer is the best response to hatred.

I'm a very cerebral person and I like to do my homework and break it down. I like to feel like I did my due diligence. It's a confidence factor for me, as an actor.

Small successes are still successes; great failures are still failures.

I like food, I like stripping vegetables of their skins, I like to have a slim young parsnip under my knife.