I grew up in the church, Resurrection Baptist Church in Philadelphia, and my grandmother was that grandmother at the church, the one always at the church, always putting on the events. It was deeply instilled in me that every action, everything I create, everything I say and do in the world is inexorably bound to the lives of everybody I come in contact with - and it's my responsibility to put things into the world that have a positive influence on humanity.

When I say I am going to run three miles, I run five. With that mentality, it is actually difficult to lose.

Things work in spite of me sometimes.

Hurry up and write your number down before I don't want it no more.

For me and my storytelling and the way that I embrace stories in the way that I embrace characters, I desperately needed to know that everything was okay.

Begging for acknowledgment, or even asking, diminishes dignity and diminishes power.

I've never really viewed myself as particularly talented. I've viewed myself as slightly above average in talent.