Notes are tricky in an audition, because I find, more often than not, my instinct is right.

From the time I became an actor my whole approach was to try to do as many different things as possible. It never occurred to me that I might be typecast.

You either get better, or you don't progress.

I'm an artist at heart.

I started acting, almost on a whim to help my music career.

That's what David Caruso said to me. We were talking about the whole Emmy thing, and he said that one of the things about awards in this town is that a lot is about the drama - like the drama of the performance. And he said "Your show, The Wire, looks so real, it almost looks like a documentary. And people who aren't artists - a lot of people who vote for this stuff - don't get it."

You don't see a lot of black rock stars. The music industry tends to be segregated stylistically. It's hard for a black artist to cross over to rock music.