We can’t go back to something we ain’t never been to in the first place. It ain’t ours anymore. This is.

But if we do not like the person we have learned to be, should we just sit in front of our fufu, doing nothing? I think, James, that maybe it is possible to make a new way.

History is Storytelling.

Maybe he wouldn't end up the kind of man who needed to use his body for work. Maybe he'd be a new kind of black man altogether, one who got to use his mind.

Evil is like a shadow. It follows you.

... as a reminder that a white man could still kill him for nothing.

he knew in his body, even if he hadn’t yet put it together in his mind, that in America the worst thing you could be was a black man. Worse than dead, you were a dead man walking.

No one forgets that they were once captive, even if they are now free.

Sadness is a bruise on the skin of memory.

Love is the language that transcends all others.

I'm shy to call myself a director still. When someone says, 'What do you do for a living?' I don't know if I've earned that.

Artists tend to be beyond embarrassment the way little children tend to be beyond embarrassment.

I wish I knew what was next. I got this movie without planning to. I'm really excited to be continuing in film because it's a great job but I have my portfolio and resume for any other opportunity.

There's always going to be someone with a bigger toy than yours.

There was a strange kind of comfort in misunderstandings and differences that were old enough to have lost their teeth.

I've asked our people, "Why don't we just put a revolver on top of our basic loan?" Make it easier for the client.

I like seeing how people have succeeded when others would have presumed they would have failed, and others just go along with whatever everyone else does.

If you're dedicated, if it's something that lives and breathes in your heart, then you've simply got to go ahead and do it.