“I wasn’t a comic book geek as a kid. I read some, but it was just like, ‘Oh, I have this comic book here.’ It wasn’t like I was collecting them.”

The industry looks for white actors and actresses, but it’s not the same for black actors. We have to really put the work in.

When you’re doing a character, you want to know the full landscape. You want to know them spiritually, mentally and physically.

People have said, ‘You don’t need to do any more biopics. You don’t need to play any more real people.’ I don’t agree with that.

I’m not really interested in being a superhero. That’s not a box I’ve been trying to check off.

Baseball players need strength but also the ability to make fast-paced, explosive movements, so their training is all about strengthening the tendons around the bone and the joint so you don’t tear the muscles from the bones.

I got scars from every film I’ve done, every TV show.

Guys are natural problem solvers – they like to have strategies.

We live in a world where people can ridicule you at the push of the button. They can question you at the push of a button.

Our lives depend on vote.

You think you can’t change the world? You can.

One of the first things I was taught as an actor was, ‘Don’t judge the character.’

Nobody has to give me permission to write.

They should probably have a James Brown aerobic tape. You would lose a lot of weight.

When you play characters, you shouldn’t just be putting on their characteristics – you should be finding it inside yourself.

You’re not free unless you can show the good and the bad, all sides of them. So to me, when I play a character, it’s important that I can show every aspect of them.

I was raised in a sort of village. I have a huge family, and I think there is strength in that. It helped me to deal with some of the complications of living in the South because I always felt like I belonged, no matter what.

Books are a uniquely portable magic.

When I was a child I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero of the comic book. I saw movies, and I was the hero in the movie. So every dream I have ever dreamed has come true a thousand times.

The trouble with writing a book about yourself is that you can’t fool around.

Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.

Read absolutely everything you get your hands on because you’ll never know where you’ll get an idea from.

The reason I collect good ideas is because plots themselves are very difficult indeed to come by.

When I look at my room, I see a girl who loves books.

I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.