“That is a huge part of my excitement, the fact that this generation will get such a beautifully-detailed introduction to a hero and icon that has largely lived in a few pages of our history books and in one-dimensional photographs.”

She moved seamlessly through an array of spirited and soul-stirring characters, each one holding a mirror up to me and allowing me in many ways to see a reflection of myself on screen.

The artistry on the show [ Underground] is apparent in each episode. From the riveting writing to the purposeful and precise direction.

I did my homework, of course, by inhaling as much literature as was available to find.

The second season of Underground does explore Canada’s role in providing a welcoming place for the thousands who were in danger of being captured and returned to their owners, and those who escaped by way of rerouting beyond the American borders.

Remakes are awesome, especially when it honors yet adds a new component or dimension to the original.

It’s no mistake that Harriet Tubman is revisiting us, in different forms, right now, as we travel through a very contentious time in the world.

The show [Shots Fired] is an autopsy of our criminal justice system.

Understanding that what it is that you’re doing isn’t limited to the roles and the rejection, it’s bigger than that, it’s about your purpose in life.

I became an instant fan of the show [Underground] seconds into the opening frames of the pilot.

Study and know that we are always a student of the craft well after we’ve completed any course of study… and approach the work as a servant, not a star.

Learning about all these elements and aspects of her was mind-blowing and educational for me as a woman because I have to sometimes remind people that have known me for years.

But truthfully, we have so many stories, lives and subjects to explore that I’d love to keep pushing towards new knowledge.

One or the other she was going to have by any means necessary.

Rosa Parks was primed, she had the Civil Rights Movement behind her, she didn’t just decide to sit on the bus, it was strategic.

I felt validated and valued , and here was this woman [Whoopi Goldberg ] inside my television screen who gave me a voice.

When that drone shot carried us through the main house with Rosalie, played so unflinchingly-brilliantly by Jurnee Smollett Bell, I signed on for the ride.

It is impossible that there should be so much providence in the last details, and none in the first principles. Then the arts of prophecy and of healing, which are part of the cosmos, come of the good providence of the Gods.

Once you get the right image the details aren’t that important.

Reveal every detail of how you feel to them with eyes wide open.

Every shrink knows that it’s not the event itself but how you respond to it that tells the story. Take ten assorted individuals, expose them all to the same life trial, and they will each suffuse it with exquisite personal detail and meaning.

Sternly, remorselessly, fate guides each of us; only at the beginning, when we’re absorbed in details, in all sorts of nonsense, in ourselves, are we unaware of its harsh hand.

In the dead silence, all the details suddenly fell into place for me with a burst of intuition. Something Edward didn’t want me to know. Something that Jacob wouldn’t have kept from me, It was never going to end, was it?

Everybody is worried about dying, but the cause of death is birth, so if you don’t want to die, you don’t get born!

Writing has nothing to do with meaning. It has to do with landsurveying and cartography, including the mapping of countries yet to come.