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.

I feel like my work has been my path to freedom from having grown up in a segregated environment.

I see myself as not a typical theater person, but a person who uses the theater as a place to meet people and explore ideas.

I love studying how people are. Not just what they're saying, but how they are, what they're doing.

I call the language of political figures, pundits and administrators "the haute couture of language."

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

If you say a word often enough it becomes you.