There is no pedestrian culture [in South Central Los Angeles].

I've had moments where I've met people who were complete, like, idiots, who could not understand visual culture to save their lives.

All art is self-portraiture.

When I went to the Studio Museum in Harlem, there was a type of freedom that existed where I didn't have to think about professors, where I didn't have to think about much of anything other than my own practice.

We're wired to be empathetic and to care about the needs of others, but also to be curious about others. And I think that's just sort of in our DNA. And so portraiture is a very human act.

I studied shades, textures by painting after the Old Masters, the classical European paintings, as part of my educational process.

Believing that navel-gazing in and of itself can transform itself into something that means something for society. I mean, we are communicative creatures. We desire to sort of understand each other's experiences and points of view. Storytelling is what painting, literature, filmmaking is all about.