'12 Years A Slave' is a film that is beautifully shot, wonderfully acted, and told in a compelling manner. However, there are some questions, in my opinion, as to its importance. Paramount among those questions is, What does this scenario illustrate that we didn't know or haven't seen before? And why does such a film garner such popularity?

Is it racist to prefer country music over the blues? Or is it simply a classic case of tribal antipathy toward the unfamiliar, in favor of gravitating to what you know?

Unfortunately, most actors want to play off their own personal mystique and good looks and whatever, but that will only carry you but so far.

I don't know of any actor in any television show that I have ever seen who's given monologue after monologue in a television series.

If you have the skill, then you can move as you age.

Race prejudice has nothing to do with color. It has to do with being the stranger.

My tendency is to be quiet and to stay focused and in character. Not the entire time, but certainly to stay focused while I'm on set.

Being back on stage in New York, off-Broadway - I mean, that's an actor's dream.

When I was growing up, all these superheroes were white. On some level, you put that out of your mind... but as you get older, you realize it's a very one-sided affair. So I'm very glad to see that these movies are becoming more diversified.

We've all grown up with 'Ozzie and Harriet,' 'Father Knows Best,' 'Eight Is Enough.' White families have always represented the universal family.

It's important to know, whether you're pro or anti the current president and what he's doing, that he's doing what he thinks is for the betterment of the country because his interest is to make this country a better place.

I didn't play basketball because I'd learned how to ice skate.

It's important to me to play men who use their brains, not just brawn.

I have lots of hopes for black actors in general, whether they be on TV or on stage or in movies, and that is that we move beyond the tokenism of what it means to be black in a particular set of circumstances.

I don't live on the West Coast, so when I come out to work, I rent a house.

When I started, black people were either victims or they were the perpetrators; they were the boogie men who jumped out of the bushes and did terrible things to you.

What you find with really good directors is that they kind of leave you alone. They've hired you because they know the kind of work you do and the sense of how you'd approach it. So usually, they'll just stand back and maybe give you a nudge once in a while in terms of something specific they might want in a particular scene.

When we were bringing 'Raisin' onto Broadway, our first stop was at Arena in D.C. Several things struck me about being in D.C.: One was the enormous poverty around the capital at that time - it was 1973, '74 - and I was stunned by people literally living in poverty, with holes in their houses and other things.

With Trump, because of the kind of seemingly violent way that he talks about things and because he's on Twitter almost every single morning, I think it brings down the respect that we have for the White House and for the Oval Office in particular, so the expectation is anything can happen, and that becomes the norm, which is unfortunate.

Even if you have something that you can contribute to society, very often society doesn't view you that way. Because when you are The Other, the first response by the mainstream, if you will, is to ostracize.

When it comes to certain portions of our history, we've just forgotten it all.

Republicans in the South... are trying to find ways, not so much to block black and brown people from voting, but to block black and brown people from getting people they want elected, which is a far more subtle thing to do.

With any villain, you have to see things from their point of view and understand that they think what they're doing will make the world a better place.

I love doing movies but I loved doing theatre just as much.

Actors are very often people who are placed in a position where they think they have to be grateful for the job and have no control over what they play and how they play it. I was not taught that way. I completely disagree with that. I think that you have more control than you think.

I know who Dick Gregory is; I knew what his accomplishments are. I certainly knew him as a comedian and an activist.

One of the beauties of working in Shondaland is that they make an effort to get to know who you are, so they're not giving you something that's going to be so far out of your comfort zone.

I think the thing is with a movie that has this much science fiction in it; you need characters who are more science fact, if you know what I mean, than they are human.

I think people believe that I give an aura of someone who has both feet on the ground.

I think it talks about that there needs to be some proactive attack against drugs infiltrating our culture.

Yes, I would love to play one of the leads in one these movies and have all those challenges and deal with all those complications, but the business being what it is, there is a slot for me in these kinds of films, so I enjoy them, and I enjoy the people that I work with.

I would love to play the villain, but again, it's sort of what happens in this industry.

There are lots of stories about my culture that I think bring a whole other perspective to who we are and where we have been and how we got here that I think need to be done.

Basically, the actor's job is to pay attention to the script.

James Cameron has always been way ahead of the curve in terms of the use of technology in his movies.

Film and television is just a different technique in terms of how to approach the camera but basically the job is the same; but what you learn as a craft in theater, you can then learn to translate that into any mediums.

If there's no craft there, then once the looks go, there goes your career.

Everywhere I go, someone stops me and says, 'Oh, you're that guy from 'Terminator 2.'' So, it's something that has, you know, been around me since the movie came out.

If you live a good life, that seems to be what really matters. If there is something afterwards, terrific. If not, you haven't lost anything.

I was maybe one of two black kids in the drama department. It was, 'Well, you can't play this role because that guy has a white girlfriend or a white cousin or whatever.'

I guess on one hand I believe it doesn't matter if there is life after death.

Hollywood, it seems, recognizes black film and black filmmakers, but like a distant lover, never close enough or long enough to forge a meaningful relationship.

Hollywood has successfully produced many films framed by anti-racist or pro-integrationist story lines. I'm going to guess that since 'Gone With The Wind,' Hollywood realized films about racism and segregation pull at the heartstrings of everyone and hopefully serve to purge a sense of guilt.

Perhaps, despite my objections, the success of films like: 'The Help,' 'Django,' 'The Butler,' or '12 Years a Slave,' will further persuade Hollywood to widen its view and edit its erroneous perception of what a commercial black film can look like.

You make up your mind what part you want to read for and why. It's kept me focused - on what's important, what I want, and what I don't.

I was different. I got beat up every day.

It's a very different thing when you're creating the world as opposed to when you're just part of the world. I love the detail of it, the problem-solving of it, and I love working with actors.

In most science-fiction pictures, the black guy is either an engineer or a radio operator, and he is the first guy killed - gone from the movie.

I want to put something on the screen that audiences have never seen black actors do before, roles that will widen views of who African-Americans are.

Acting-wise, it's always exciting to come back for a third season of any TV show that you're working on.