I played Othello, but I didn't sit around thinking how Laurence Olivier did it when he played it. That wouldn't do me any good.

Meryl and Katharine Hepburn are probably the two greatest actresses of this and the last century.

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."

I walk by faith, not by sight.

There's always got to be room for what you might call benign corruption. Nobody blames a man who steals food to feed his starving children, but on the other hand, somebody who picks up a badge and takes an oath to serve and protect; we do expect a certain level of essential honesty.

Any good piece of material like Shakespeare ought to be open to reinterpretation.

My role 14 years ago in Richard III - that was the first time I played a bad guy and learned a lot about it - they have all the fun!