Working with Ava [ DuVernay] and Oprah [Winfrey], they're just so intimate. I feel like we're really family at this point.

I've worked so hard to just be my full self and God has just validated me in so many ways.

I feel responsible to know what I'm talking about and to actually express myself the way I choose. We have to put those messages on a global platform period. That, to me, is inspiring.

I really got attracted to the idea of touching so many people and that idea of art transcending entertainment and art and activism being synonymous.

I just owe it to myself, to God and to everybody who supports me and people who don't even know me yet, to just be fully intentional and authentically real with everything I do, say and create.

I try to be as intentional as possible.

People respect us, they love us and they're entertained by us, so it's like when you trust somebody on that level, it's a lot easier to speak some real knowledge into their minds.

As a young, Black man, I absolutely feel responsible.

Everyone has a platform, so if we could just use that and combine what we have and know -we talk about it in private - we might as well talk about it [publicly] together.

I think that's really the allure of acting for me. I really want to connect with people.

I really wanted to be a part of that movement or better yet create that movement.

Never concede to evil…. When we concede to evil, even in a small way, we feed it, and it grows stronger.

Don't bother about those who can't understand you, because they don't deserve you for what you are.

I love writing about the summer between high school and college. It's the last gasp of really being a teen.

I am a lucky man. I have had a dream and it has come true, and that is not a thing that happens often to men.

For me, the meaning of life is the next generation.

Virtually all ideologues, of any variety, are fearful and insecure, which is why they are drawn to ideologies that promise prefabricated answers for all circumstances.

But be very, very careful, because when you're playing with momentum, you're playing with fire.

Don't just go through it; grow through it.

I feel now at 53 I have grown into a deeper understanding of what a human life is.

My mind is my biggest asset.