[My father] could see as far as he could see and my mother wanted us to go to college so it was a very real part of my life.

We'll all retire from life at some point. The great thing about acting is you don't necessarily have to retire.

It just happened that we did [Fences] seven years ago on Broadway. Scott Rudin brought me August Wilson's original screenplay for it, and I realized I hadn't read the play. So I read it. Then I realized that Troy (my character) was 53 - and I was 55 at the time. I realized I better hurry up! I might be too old!

I've worked with children all my life.

You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That's a part of it.

There's things that I can do as an actor that I couldn't do in any other form of life and I've got a strange personality. But film requires strange people, so I've got a nice comfy home.

There is nothing good or bad, except by comparison" (209) - "Effort is Everything" by Bud Selig