I'm driven by passion. I mean, I am tired right now. I work to a point of abandon. I am fueled by my understanding of the need for self-expression that exists for young people.

Failure: Is it a limitation? Bad timing? It's a lot of things. It's something you can't be afraid of, because you'll stop growing. The next step beyond failure could be your biggest success in life.

In places in the world where we don't speak the same language, or even understand that we pray to the same God, we dance to the same beat, that is the ONE.

But out of limitations comes creativity.

Be true. Be beautiful. Be free. In the midst of segregation and racism Mamma raised us to be independent and free. We saw ourselves as citizens of the world, not of a block.

Michael Ralph brilliantly plays the street prophet, a West Indian who foreshadows the Harlem riot.

You have to examine a scene on the page first. Then you get into the basics of acting: Who are you? Who are you talking to? How do you feel about that person?

If you just change one person's life, you feel like you've done something. But if you can change a whole lot of them and get them looking at themselves differently, it's amazing.

I'm always moving forward.

I design my shots. I walk the rehearsal as the camera and say 'this is where I want to be... I want this look.

I think a good director casts a film so that the actors bring a lot to the table.

If you can think it, you can become it.

Courage is like love, it must have hope for nourishment.

Directing is so interesting. You know, it just sort of encompasses everything that you see, that you know, that you've felt, that you have observed.

I don't want to ever, ever give that kind of pain to one living mortal. And I will not give that thought power in my life. That's my practice.

I can run fast when I want to run fast, and I've always been good at destroying things.

I think that reality exists and that it's knowable.

I believe that people are fundamentally are decent. And, yes, you will have people that sometimes will misbehave.

If you want to feel proud of yourself, then do good. Take action that will make you proud. . . . And if you really want to feel proud, then do something to help someone else.

I am a complete jazz nerd.

Care is no cure, but rather corrosive, For things that are not to be remedied.