I imagine it was much different in the 1970s. That was the Renaissance for black actors, albeit in blaxploitation movies. There was a much greater preponderance of work then than there is now.

I don't like movies that are trying to preach and trying to tell you how to feel.

I think it’s intoxicating when somebody is so unapologetically who they are.

We're trying to do what Miles Davis would have wanted us to do, which is approach it as artists with his life as the canvas.

Living by example - that's always a better teacher than trying to preach.

I've been doing this since I was 10 years old, inhabiting different people and playing different roles.

I hate it when, by page 30, I know what the lead's going to do and then what the bad guy's gonna do. Mostly it's just scripts by the numbers where nothing's surprising, nothing's interesting.