The first eight years of schooling was with all white people. So that helped me to understand how white people think. I think that transition is what helped me bridge the gap, because that's what my success has really been about: bridging the gap between the black community and the white community.

I had to focus and create a character in Bagger Vance, not just do my 'Will Smith' thing and get paid.

The things that have been most valuable to me I did not learn in school. Traditional education is based on facts and figures and passing tests - not on a comprehension of the material and its application to your life.

I want to be the person that is the first person there and the last person to leave. That's who I want to be, because I think the road to success is through commitment, and through the strength to drive through that commitment when it gets hard. And it is going to get hard and you're going to want to quit sometimes, but it'll be colored by who you are, and more by who you want to be.

You can create whatever you want. You just have to know what you want and take the opportunities as they come your way. We are who we choose to be.

When you find things that are tried and true for millennia, you can bet that it's going to happen tomorrow.

You have to create something in a way that has direction, that it has vision, and then your partner will take it and figure out whatever their expertise is.