The last thing I want to be is a rich black superstar. I just want to act.

One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.

When I read great literature, great drama, speeches, or sermons, I feel that the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language.

Reading was a big thing, yes. Books were a big thing. But the things that stick out were the newspapers.

Even during the rationing period, during World War II, we didn't have the anxiety that we'd starve, because we grew our own potatoes, you know? And our own hogs, and our own cows and stuff, you know.

If you live in an oppressive society, you've got to be resilient. You can't let each little thing crush you. You have take every encounter and make yourself larger, rather than allow yourself to be diminished by it.

I'd like to film a British commercial; they're better than American ones.