I know my audience, and they're not people that the studios know anything about.

It doesn't matter if a million people tell you what you can't do, or if ten million tell you no. If you get one yes from God that's all you need.

You know, people at Wal-Mart are standing there with their uniforms on. I feel like I'm putting on a uniform to do a movie. I don't feel like it's dressing in drag.

I was a very poor young black boy in New Orleans, just a face without a name, swimming in a sea of poverty trying to survive.

Don't make a black woman take off her earrings".

Hollywood is finally waking up to the fact that people who go to church also go to the movies. I'm not sure what took them so long to see that or how long they'll keep it up.

I don't think the dreams die - I think that people give up. I think it gets too hard.