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

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 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.

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

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.

Those films that really speak to the primal fear that we, as human beings, have about the unknown have always intrigued me.

The university is the archive of the Western mind, it’s the keeper of the Western culture, …

It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.

You alone govern the nature of things. Without you nothing emerges into the light of day, without you nothing is joyous or lovely.

Death is nothing to us, it matters not one jot, since the nature of the mind is understood to be mortal.

We were filming in Greenland, and I treated my crew.

It kills me to know, that I healed your broken heart just so you could walk away and beat someone else’s name.

Don’t trust anyone. Be a cold fish. I hurt no one. And no one can hurt me.