I remember my mother and father arguing about light bulbs because my father thought he could save money by putting 25-watt bulbs instead of 60-watt bulbs and my mother was trying to explain to him that her children needed to learn to read so that they could go to college. He couldn't see that.

You have to grab moments when they happen. I like to improvise and ad lib.

When you look in one direction where Troy's chair was, you could see out through the yard across the street, there was an old cork bar advertisement for five cents. We wanted it to feel like this was real life [in Fences] and that it extended blocks and blocks.

[Having monologue] are talking to somebody even if it's just to yourself, convince yourself if that's what you're trying to do.

A film is just like a muffin. You make it. You put it on the table. One person might say, 'Oh, I don't like it.' One might say it's the best muffin ever made. One might say it's an awful muffin. It's hard for me to say. It's for me to make the muffin.

Acting, it's not my life, my children and my family, that's life. I'll get up every morning, God willing, for that.

As the filmmaker, yes, I have to look out for everybody. But I don't have to know everybody's approach.