Now, I have big-money offers on three movies, and I have director approval. That's kind of scary,' he says. 'No directors have been attached. That's a lot of pressure on me

I have never made a decision based on race and never will.

Don't let people disrespect you. My mom says don't open the door to the devil. Surround yourself with positive people.

We all create our own reality by the choices we make.

The Academy Awards was an amazing night. I know I kind of lost my mind a little bit. I apologize for that. That night went so fast I can't remember what I said or what happened.

I am admiring of my fellow peers, black filmmakers and black actors and actresses.

I'm an avid hockey fan and I've been playing for about 17 years, and somebody recently told me that the first organized hockey teams in Canada were all black. Telling those stories would be cool.

I've always been a sucker for attention.

What makes you think that what you know is any different from what I know? I had different teachers.

My wife and I have been together since 1986. I graduated in '86 and she graduated in '88. We began dating when she was 17. Actually she turned 18 when we started kissing and stuff.

I understand it all. I can write my own ticket for one or two movies. But if they're not the right ones, my ticket gets yanked. I understand that's how it works, and I'm okay with it.

She thought of how precious it was to be able to know another person over many years. There was incomparable richness in it.

She is inhumanly alone. And then, all at once, she isn't.

Freedom is baffling: men having it often know not they have it till it is gone and they no longer have it.

I went from having 50 listeners to 50 million listeners.

I've got a long list of books I wish I'd never written-and I've kept them all out of print for the past 20 years.

Much is required of those who are happy, especially if they have needed comforting in the past, and have received it.

The children of the white families in town were not permitted to associate with me, because my father was committing the then unpardonable crime, in Southern eyes, of educating negroes.

Don't we all have an itch for kitsch?

Everything has shape, if you look for it. There is no escape from form.

You can take a good picture of anything. A bad one, too.