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

I've been fortunate. I don't pick scripts. Scripts pick me.

Where I think the most work needs to be done is behind the camera, not in front of it.

I didn't want to audition the kids so much; I just wanted to talk to them because I like seeing how they are because their mothers usually mess them up with practice. So, I'd rather talk to them and see how they respond. I just throw things at them and see how they can hit the ball back, and Saniyya Sidney was good.

Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.

I worked with Sidney Lumet years ago, and we had a long rehearsal process, and he would tape out the entire set on the stage, so I stole that from him.

We just had to stay out-of-the-way [in Fences]. [August Wilson] already wrote a masterpiece. And you really don't know how it's going to work until you get it in front of an audience.