Actor

I don't very often read novels.

I am not a hugely religious person, but I believe that there is a oneness with everything. And because there is this oneness, it is possible that my mother is the principal reason for my life.

Far as I can tell, I still have most of my hair, my gut is not hanging over my belt, and I still have all of my teeth.

I learned to hear silence. That's the kind of life I lived: simple. I learned to see things in people around me, in my mom, dad, brothers and sisters.

I was not the kind of a principal player that was so in demand that eight or 10 or 12 scripts came per month.

I never had an occasion to question color, therefore, I only saw myself as what I was... a human being.

I'm a good person.

There is not racial or ethnic domination of hopelessness. It's everywhere.

Mine was an easy ride compared to Jackie Robinson's.

I sometimes like the pictures photographers take of me.

Generally, I tend to despise human behavior rather than human creatures.

To simply wake up every morning a better person than when I went to bed.

I didn't run into racism until we moved to Nassau when I was ten and a half, but it was vastly different from the kind of horrendous oppression that black people in Miami were under when I moved there at 15. I found Florida an antihuman place.

I had two roles for which I compromised.

The journey has been incredible from its beginning.

So I'm OK with myself, with history, my work, who I am and who I was.

I had chosen to use my work as a reflection of my values.

I wanted to look at them because I feel, internally, that I am an ordinary person who has had an extraordinary life.

I couldn't adjust to the racism in Florida. It was so blatant... I had never been so described as Florida described me.

I was the only Black person on the set. It was unusual for me to be in a circumstance in which every move I made was tantamount to representation of 18 million people.