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

You know if we were to look back and how we were in 1955 living in Jim Crow, living in segregation, living in segregated schools, it's hard to believe that it was America, but it really was.

Some people study a text very deeply. The people are my text. I study their words and what their words sound like, over and over again.

I see myself first and foremost as a student of expression.

I think we can learn a lot about a person in the very moment that language fails them. In the very moment they they have to be more creative than they would have imagined in order to communicate. It's the very moment that they have to dig deeper than the surface to find words, and at the same time, it's a moment when they want to communicate very badly. They're digging deep and projecting out at the same time.

Then everyone leaves, and you are left, each night, to your own devices with a crowd of interesting people - most of whom you don't know - sitting in the dark.

I think what I am is a "convener"; I like to convene people around ideas.