Movies, as evidenced by a chorus of protesting and celebrating Americans, influence broader trends.

Hope is when you look out the window and you go, 'It doesn't look good at all, but I'm going to go beyond what I see to give people visions of what could be.'

I remember from my father's funeral that the minister kept using a metaphor about life of a prism. And I took that away like a cherished image.

Many people are afraid to talk about race because it's so emotionally loaded. We don't have the vocabulary to talk about it. Every day, our vocabulary seems more and more inadequate.

Identity is an assemblage of constellations.

I am not myself; I am the potential of myself.

I mean, I think a healthy country is a country where people are healthy physically, and a smart country is a country where people are educated.