Don't send me your script if you want me to play the black best friend; I just won't do that.

People have compact to go beyond our own culture and upbringing to a degree that I think we don't acknowledge enough really.

I never, ever do a film and just kind of move on. I think of them as children of mine, and you don't give birth to a baby and just leave it on someone else's doorstep. You see it all the way through college.

The thing that would probably surprise most people was that Dr. Martin Luther King was a very reluctant leader. He felt very shocked at times that he had been chosen for this path, but he also understood that he was chosen for this path. He had several moments of acute doubt as to if he was up for the task - when people were injured in the protests he took it very personally, let alone when they were killed.

One of the things the BBC does better than anyone is period drama.

I hear God as an audible voice.

Hate cannot overcome hate; only love can do that.