Discipline — both mental and physical — is crucial..

If I do three interviews in a day, I can be exhausted, because the process of hearing everyone requires that I empty out myself. While I'm listening,….

You are an explorer. You understand that every time you go into the studio, you are after something that does not yet exist..

Suddenly in high school, I'm in a predominantly Jewish atmosphere. Jewish people were my gate to white America..

Somehow we can't live outside the politics of race. There's something very deep in all of us, that is taught to us when we are very, very little. Whi….

For me, first of all, I love people, I love ideas..

I never know when somebody's going to knock on the door of my own unconscious in a way that I wouldn't have anticipated..

You've heard that old expression from Shakespeare, 'Just speak the speech'? The words themselves will take you to the reality of the character. And s….

The individuals inside are frequently fighting that their individual voices be heard, while the walls of the place, which are the mask, and the perce….

Identity is an assemblage of constellations..

Confidence is the mark of a hopeful disposition..

If you think about what acting is supposed to be, my job is to disappear..

I think it's really important to give yourself a very big question that you're working on that you can come home to..

People in power have to be careful about what comes out of their mouth. They have to find exactly the right word that can't be attacked..

Friendship is a wildly underrated medication..

I'm interested when things are upside down - because there are so many possibilities in that one moment. There is a lot that is exposed..

Hope is when you look out the window and you go, 'It doesn't look good at all, but I'm going to go beyond what I see to give people visions of what c….

Do you want to be an artist so that the whole world will look at you, or do you want to be an artist because you would like to use your ability to at….

Poverty makes it very difficult in an already competitive world for kids to get on a straight track where they can actually love learning..

When I got out of acting school, I was lucky to have gotten any job at all. A lot of people hiring African American actresses - it was right after 'R….

My job in my work is not to acquire power; it's to question power..