Actors are intelligent. Yet, many of them do not communicate well. That's what makes it so hard to have a relationship with one.

I think, by nature you know, I'm very attracted and I gravitate toward the very strong girl who can watch a ballgame, but who's also extremely feminine.

That point of life when I learned I could cook, that always made me understand what cooks felt like feeding other people. It's okay to receive, but it's really cool to give, so food is to me sexy because it's the fact that someone is giving it to someone else.

Spike Lee gave me the greatest reaction to the fact that I was this athlete-meets-artist, because I think he saw that I was different. I learned that oftentimes, Spike directs in a sense that he might just stare at you and look at you in a telepathic way of communicating.

A powerful person is equally cool with their flaws and things that aren't powerful about them at all.

You know how you can be romantic? You can be romantic by going to a beautiful setting, sitting on a park bench, and getting good ole-fashioned golden arches, a.k.a. McDonald's. That's probably the best I can do romantically.

That's the thing with me being a former athlete: in the way I attack characters and attack poetry is from the base of being an athlete.

I'm safe where I'm at just being the guy where people go, 'That's a really good actor. What's his name again?' I liked being at that place.

I did 'Fences' off-broadway at the Beacon Theater, so it's amazing that Denzel Washington and Viola Davis brought it to Broadway.

It's rare for artists to really stare deeply at themselves in the mirror, literally, because there's constantly a mirror on you.

I'm always like, 'Well, let's not rest on a critical acclaim or on a incredible review or on a great reception.'

You know, I think anybody who has been in relationships has access to heartbreak - I don't think we have to go far to find it, whether we inflicted the heartbreak or whether we were the recipient of it.

The way the recession has affected Hollywood, a lot of actors that had robust opportunities before in film no longer have such plum options, so cable has done a good job of becoming a happy medium for artists deemed film actors.

As an African-American male born with a couple of strikes against you because of your skin color, I think it's very, very important to have some positive role models around, especially male influences.

When you start out on a project as an actor, you know, you approach the character from the standpoint of maybe writing a list - even if it's a mental list that you make - of the adjectives that the character has or that character possesses.

I've been described as a smart actor because I've attended college. Or I've been called an artsy jock. And I am thinking, 'So, are actors supposed to be dumb?'

As a poet, I would always hear emcees come up to me and say, 'Yo, you should rap,' and I was like, 'No.' You know, the label was tough for me. I'm a poet. I was proud of that distinction between the two, not wanting to be the other.

I use Aveeno cleansers and moisturizers.

I always had an interest in telling stories.

Life as a poet and actor truly became full circle as I stood on stage as host of 'Verses & Flow' and lived in both of these outfits. It was one of the best experiences of my professional life.

Real to Reel is a rare opportunity for new filmmakers to screen their work for industry insiders.

The reality is our story and the way we love and our taste in clothing and everything else. And what we ambitiously feel we can be.

I have very much been a guy who's acknowledged how many women have directed me, have produced... it's been unbelievable.

Women are so necessary for us in terms of support.

You can't look at the dollar and say, 'I'm not what I dreamed of being unless I do this type of movie and it's a blockbuster that gives me this amount of dollars.' That's not good.

If you remain open to great directors who look like you, who know what they're doing and are making impactful films that are destroying these 'blockbuster films,' you can do okay, and everybody can get more of a piece of the pie. But you've got to be open and brave.

I come from the stage, so I started in New York, lived there for eleven years.

We are a total of our sum parts, right? I came from a family of very strong women - black women. And if I go back as far as my great grandmothers, there was always that love and the ability to be nurturing. Then I grew up in a household where my father was the one who was more affectionate with me.

I was definitely a Daddy's boy.

I'd say my artistic bent definitely came from my father, who was a trial lawyer. And if you're smart, you know that a trial lawyer isn't that different from an actor. He was a poet as well.

So many athletes who have been close to me have been everything to me.

I got in trouble for saying I would move my family to Europe, but I said it.

I'm addicted to the hotel life. It's humbling and fly at the same time.

Sometimes my schedule doesn't allow time to go to the hotel after I get off the plane, so I bring my Freebird boots or my old school Adidas shell-toes to throw on after I land.

It's really rare to come across a character, a show, or a movie that allows you to completely play four or five different characters within a season, let alone a week.

It's an interesting thing to play the heroes of our society, like cops and firefighters. They're the basic heroes that, as little boys and little girls, you look up to as the first heroes of your small, specific community.

I tend to want to put my fingers over my ears and not hear all of that, not hear that there are so many fans.

'Dark Blue' was a really solid show, and it stopped at season two.

You don't go to church and tell the choir how to sing if you're a visitor.

As an actor, I come to set, and I have already broken the character down by writing a poem about the character. I try to write in his voice, the way he would write it.

I've approached every character I've ever played with a poem, first and foremost.

I think I'm an athlete who's trained as an actor, and when you smash it all together, you get whatever Omari is doing as a performer right now.

I think actors make for very good directors, and I would like to do that one day.

If I could remake any Eighties project, it would be less an action flick than a character-driven drama with a rich story to tell.

Like anybody who grew up in the Eighties, I cringe at the thought of these movies being remade, because of the corniness and cheesiness of the originals.

If I can just be thought of as Omari Hardwick who had a really, really solid career, and whose work is appreciated in its own right, I think that would be a great legacy to leave behind.

Unlike many Californians or New Yorkers, college football is a religion down south.

On 'Being Mary Jane,' I learned to embrace sex symbol.

I realized, 'Oh, it's easier to get what I want if I embrace the sex symbol thing.' Microphones are more in my face, and I can say things about the kids that I mentor and open more access to more doors.

I've definitely had my moments in relationships where I've been able to say yes, I have been heartbroken, my heart has been broken.