Hold tight to the mentality of being a student, meaning hold on to curiosity and approach life as a student.

Anyone who grew up in the crack era - you know, I grew up in that era - knew that there were also people out - and there are still guys to this day that are out there, you know, obviously drug dealing - but those were the guys who had access and had money. And some of those guys felt responsible to create opportunity for other people and were also aware of the dangers of their work and often aren't really the ones that are encouraging kids to get into drug dealing.

I think what I've learned from working on "Moonlight" is we see what happens when you persecute people. They fold into themselves.

I always hope to be a better person tomorrow than today.

I got into [acting] so late because of sports. And then when I was in grad school, I sort of got lulled into basically forgetting I was black, in - meaning that everyone you play at a conservatory, 95 percent of the characters are non-black.

To really be conscious of how long the journey is, be patient, push yourself, persevere and always be working on your craft while waiting for your break.

I never wanted to accept that. And so I have always fought against that in some way, shape or form and had - I've had people who have supported trying to get me in for things that were beyond the character description.