Steve McQueen is a genius. And I think that word is overused, but I think with Steve it's rightly used. He's a genius.

No matter where you're from, your dreams are valid.

What I've learned from myself is that I don't have to be anybody else. Myself is good enough.

You can't eat beauty, it doesn't sustain you. What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion, for yourself and those around you. That kind of beauty inflamed the heart and merchants the soul.

You fail, and then what? Life goes on. It's only when you risk failure that you discover things.

I realized that beauty was not a thing that I could acquire or consume, it was something that I just had to be.

What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion: for yourself and for those around you.

There is no shame in black beauty.

You have to allow for the impossible to be possible.

To be human is to seek perfection, and find joy in never attaining it.

I discovered that joy is not the negation of pain, but rather acknowledging the presence of pain and feeling happiness in spite of it.

I don't believe any scientific field to be superior to another.

Smart means having intellectual humility rather than high cognitive ability.

You can have all your heart's desires.

Neither soldiers nor money can defend a king but only friends won by good deeds, merit, and honesty.

It doesn't cost anything more to be nice.

I don't want to die without knowing who I am.

When she smiles niggers ask her for her hand in marriage; when I smile folks check their wallets.

You must remember I grew up around music. Three of my family were musicians.

Awe and respect are two different things.

You're the type who thinks of the glass as being half full, instead of half empty. "No," she said, "I'm just grateful for the glass.