The truth is more important to me than anything - my personal wealth or health or any of these things. I think that it's not so difficult for me to say what I'm saying.

The images that people see in the media of black people - whether journalistic or narrative - remain horrible. And those images, combined with the lack of respect among black people in the poorer neighborhoods for themselves, and the part the police and other people coming into those neighborhoods play, it creates no value for life.

If hell comes as a result of my speaking the truth, then let it come.

The United States Justice Department, in my opinion, hasn't done a damn thing to alleviate this horrible manifestation of racism, bigotry and hate against blacks - the first African American President has done nothing. Even if he were inclined to do something to rectify what we are experiencing as a nation, I don't know if can go as far as an artistic expression can go, as salve for the collected suffering of the people.

Hollywood loves to pat itself on the back and espouse their rhetorically liberal points of view while they continue to be the 1 percent and point the finger at the other guy.

There was a lynching case as late as 2011, so it's not as far away as we think. I think persecution by powerful structures, on a people who are marginalized, is not new. The idea of lynching is well known, and the way we present it in the play makes the lynching somewhat of a relief, compared to the barbaric treatment they were receiving as sharecroppers.

I think that Hollywood is content with condescending to Black people, patronizing them, feeling sorry for us, and I think we're happy to take the pat on the head as a people and take whatever awards.