That's what's great about the arts. Everything inspires you, and you get a chance to grow from watching other people and how they do their work.

We cannot turn our back and say that violence in films or anything that we do doesn't have a sort of influence. It does.

What I've noticed is that when people win huge and they have those huge, huge successes, sometimes they forget about the actual acting of it, and sometimes it's hard to come down from their perch.

Actually, music gave me the support when I needed it. I would never have gone to college unless I'd gotten a piano scholarship. And now I'm so glad I got to learn to play the cello, which is a different experience, you're flexing a different muscle, but it's beautiful because it is music.

Quentin Tarantino is a hip-hop artist. I told him, "You're hip-hop!" You keep seeing surprises, and a clip here and there, because Quentin is hip-hop. A hip-hop artist will drop a single, leak something over here, and drop something over there 'cause he knows it's hot. He's on the spot with the way he does things.

I play a slave. How black is that? I have to wear chains. How whack is that? But don’t worry. I get free. I save my wife and I kill all the white people in the movie. How great is that?

If you look at how long the Earth has been here, we're living in the blink of an eye. So, whatever it is you want to do, you go out and do it.