What we did [shooting "Fences"] was we got young students from Carnegie Mellon, the acting and theater students, and we had them as our understudies. I told them, "You have to be off book and be ready. If Viola [Davis] has to leave you have to jump in."

If you don't love your fellow man, women, person, then you don't have anything. If you don't treat your neighbor as you would want to be treated that to me is the fundamental message.

My mother never gave up one me. I messed up in school so much they were sending me home, but my mother sent me right back.

When I was a child I thought I saw an angel. It had wings and kinda looked like my sister. I opened the door so some light could come into the room, and it sort of faded away. My mother said it was probably my Guardian Angel.

I'm selfish, I think. I think an artist has to be. I'm not worried about what people think. I play the parts that I find interesting. It'd bother me more to be just pigeonholed into doing what people think is ethical or that's boring to me. I don't pick parts with that in mind, I just find interesting stories. If it's interesting to me, then I do it.

People tend to relax when they're off camera. That's when they should be working the hardest.

I work hard for the audience. It's entertainment. I don't need validation.