“I have a Twitter handle, but I never sign on.”

I was going to go to med school. My father’s dream was that all of his kids become doctors.

You look up to your parents and you want them to accept you,

Life is too short to do something you don’t want to do.

I’m in awe of how grounded Ms. Tyson is and how her performances can be different but the same.

She’s pretty amazing.

She can switch up the delivery, but it’s still with the right intention.

That’s what you want art to do, to open people up and start conversations.

That’s how clueless I was. I just thought I could show up.

I want to tell authentic, real stories with real characters.

I think L.A. is beautiful.

I grew up in New York and I’ve always lived here, so I look at myself as a regular person.

And I’m not sure if he [made his comments on Trayvon] because he was asked a question and he was trying to be diplomatic and neutral – that can’t happen.

My mother’s a pretty warm, open person.

I was reading the paper and saw a cartoon with Ray Kelly frisking Obama, and I was like “Wait, what’s happening?” so I Googled it.

I love that you can watch a film and 10 years later still be affected.

I realized in school I didn’t like it. When he died, it was like a wake-up call.

I’ve come to understand that the best one can hope for as a human is to have a relationship with that emptiness where God would be if God were available, but God isn’t.

You know what you want to do, then you balance it against paying the rent.

I was raised in a spirit of the importance of service to your fellow man.

The future belongs to you. Should anyone insult you, tell yourself this:

I am kind of a curmudgeonly person, so I don’t gravitate to groups or traditions, which is probably just pretentious of me.

I love new cities, and if I haven’t travelled for a month, the need to go somewhere starts to gets under my skin.

We had to, as children, adapt to various situations with either a military family or things like that.

Patience and time do more than strength or passion.