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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

I was definitely a Daddy's boy.

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

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.

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.

Women are so necessary for us in terms of support.

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

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.

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

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.

I always had an interest in telling stories.

I use Aveeno cleansers and moisturizers.

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.