That's the gift 'Precious' has given me. You really think you're telling a story about a fat black girl, and only fat black girls will understand it, and then you realize we're all Precious.

I believe in life that you know that everything prepares you for the next thing - whether it's a hit, whether it's not a hit, whether it's a... your failures are your accomplishments because it makes you prepared for whatever it is that you are going to do next.

I came to Hollywood to write and found out I don't have the attention span.

I'm in a great place because I trust people behind the camera as I go off, and I still go back to my day job and do film.

America is fickle. You never know what they're going to go for.

Every African-American I know has two faces. There's the face that we have for ourselves and the face we put on for white America for the places we have to get to.

I see that I have, as part of my stock in trade, a very regal personality and carriage. I see that I have a kind of strength, a kind of command, and a kind of power that one would associated with a monarch.

I can't imagine not coming back to the theater. It's where I started.

Jesse Eisenberg, this little nebbishy guy, as Lex Luthor? For me, that's a genius move.

All I know is, I'm trying to do things that are a little different whenever I can.

You can't go looking for another one of those franchises. You only ever get one of those. You get 'Stars Wars'; you get 'Indiana Jones' or get 'The Matrix.' I've had my franchise.

Obviously, after 'The Matrix,' it was a case of, 'OK, I did that. What's next?' I mean, it's always like that, but more so this time. How do I change it up? How do I keep it interesting for myself?

Most of us are afraid of our success, that we will actually be great.

Hiding a talent is not exclusive to any one particular group of people: young, old, black, white, Latin. It doesn't matter. It's universal. The idea that you have a gift or talent is always kind of threatening.

What I continue to learn as a parent is to be mindful of the fact that I am responsible for being the parent that my children need me to be and not necessarily the parent I want to be.

I love the opportunity to use my full range, and so playing in the comedy 'Black-ish' gives me the opportunity to show my lighter side, and playing in this beautiful, elegant horror story of 'Hannibal,' I get to use my darker and more cerebral side. It's really wonderful.

My production company, what we are trying to do is I'm trying to create content that speaks to me, and it's not one color. It's not one size fits all.

I've been around long enough now and have learned to be flexible enough to know that every movie isn't going to be 'Apocalypse Now,' and every director doesn't have to be Stanley Kubrick.

When I was ten, I did a play at the Henry Street Settlement Playhouse, Charles Fuller's first play. He went on to write 'A Soldier's Story,' among other things. I realized, 'Oh, I can be anything doing this.'

A smart black guy is confronting for most people. But that's on them, not on me.

I always wanted to play a cowboy. I just didn't get to do it the way I thought I would.

I'm passionate about all the things I do, really.

My company, Cinema Gypsy, produced a podcast, 'Bronzeville,' in conjunction with Larenz Tate and his brothers that we're developing into a television show. It deals with a very tight-knit African-American community in Chicago in 1947 and people who run a numbers wheel.

I have a relationship with the southern hemisphere that's a really good one. I love it there.