Race is a universal flaw in humanity. So yes, I've been in many situations where I've felt like the outsider because of the color of my skin.

Like comedy, horror has an ability to provoke thought and further the conversation on real social issues in a very powerful way.

Sometimes blessings come in strange packages.

I look at racism as one of the social demons. And, in its worst, it's violent and it's a systemic commitment to oppression.

The conversation about race is inevitable. It's one that people know that we have to have and continue to have.

A greater truth that I think we are faced with on a day-to-day basis as minorities is: We are the color of skin first and people second.

How we act with each other really reveals our most animal instincts.

I can fathom anything, man. I love biting off more than I can chew and figuring it out.

[ When I met Barack Obama] He says, I do a pretty good me myself - he said something like that. But he's - he is a close talker. He's a touchy guy.

I just think racism is within each and every one of us. It's everyone's responsibility to figure out how they deal with this kind of obsolete instinct.

I think that human beings are the most awful monster we have ever seen.

My movies are not movies of answers but of questions.

I was seeing people that were older who didn't create any kind of foundation in their lives, and it scared me to death.

Modesty sets off one newly come to honour.

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.

Keeping them behind bars does little to reduce crime, but it does a lot to tear apart families, our prisons and our jails are now our mental health institutions.

I really think the key to any movie is that you tell the story kind of in a fulsome way, with depth, with skill, and you will find your audience.

I've never been hurt by a sea creature, except for jellyfish and sea urchins.

If you are not curious, that's when your brain is starting to die. And discovering, I think, that's what separates us from the rest of the other species. It's that we discover and pioneer.

Much like a patchwork quilt, inspiration that stirs and motivates me is made of many things.

I grew up in New York, in the Village, and I started going to Stella Adler pretty young. I was 13 or 14 years old. But I was also really shy when I was growing up.