Sometimes audiences love you because they get to boo you.

I wanted to paint pictures of people. I thought, "Why bother doing anything else. Everything else is a waste of time. I want to tell stories about people and their feelings and emotions."

You have to be polite with your friends and your family, but in your art, it's important to not be polite.

You always feel very vulnerable when you put your work out there. You feel a kind of nakedness. And you expose something of the inner workings of the way you experience life.

I think it's important to make art that is not that easily absorbable, that is a challenge to the authorities.

I think great art goes beyond the control of the artist. In some ways, art often makes itself and reveals things about that artist that maybe the artist is not fully conscious of.

If you don't have your unconscious working for you, you're really out of luck as an artist.

There was an expression of intensity in dance that was so compelling to me that I wanted a piece of that action.

A good film is always nourishing. It's not about it being hopeful or bleak; it's about how it touches you, how it moves or stirs you.

I'm not trying to be a finger-wagger at society. I sort of start with myself.

I think it's really important as an artist not to be drawn to the haters, because there are so many people who are nice and quiet.

And what if Miriam and I were never to be reconciled?

A while ago, I wished upon a shooting star that one day I’d find someone to love…and now holding you in my arms makes me realize that wishes really do come true,

I’m nauseatingly pro-American. I would have come here from any country. The U.S. is where great things are possible.

This is a path that you follow alone.

Religion is the rules, regulations, ceremonies and rituals developed by man to create conformity and uniformity in the approach to God. Spirituality is God's call in your soul.

I don't do stuff to be a star. I do it because I feel it's important for kids, African American kids, to see an African American face that plays baseball.

The philosophy of waiting is sustained by all the oracles of the universe.

This is a terrible mistake, because I used up all of my English.

When you're constantly looking for things from other people, you're not looking within yourself.

If you want to keep something concealed from your enemy, don't disclose it to your friend.