I'm not very excitable as a person. What I say is, I'm always chillin', I'm always chillin'.

When I think about it, I was working very hard the summer before I applied to graduate school. I was going to the library every day in the summer. I read a play a day for about three months. I was taking audition classes, and I was reciting lines to myself and acting as my own scene partner. But I was having fun.

My father was Muslim, and my mom is Christian, and we moved from New Orleans to Oakland, so I always had this appreciation for different cultures.

I did not sit down and watch 'Baywatch' growing up. But I do specifically remember it coming on, and I remember it going off. I watched something that came on right before and then going back to that channel to watch what was coming on afterwards.

I had taken an acting class at Berkeley - I was on the track team, and a friend of mine on the team said, 'You should take an acting class. It's just like recess.' So I viewed it as a simple credit.

I wanted to be Michael Jackson as a kid.

When I was in college, it was on the recommendation of a friend of mine. He recommended that I take an acting class, and so I kind of did. I was very open to feedback and open to suggestions. I had a little bit of space in my schedule, and I guess, as the story goes, I went into an acting class, and I kind of got the bug for it.

If you look at the story of 'The Get Down,' it's the story of young people, unknowns thrown together by their resources, trying to create something.

I just want to do work that gets people excited and makes them feel things, no matter their economic or racial background.

I was studying architecture at Berkeley when my father passed away in 2007. We knew he had cancer, but we didn't expect it to escalate so rapidly. In my mind, it was like, 'He'll pull through.' When he didn't, I didn't understand. I was 21, and my best friend had died.

I kind of just skyrocketed out of graduate school.

I have a love-hate relationship with working out. I do not enjoy the experience when I'm doing it, but I never regret it.

I'm so thankful every day.

I'm the youngest of six kids, and I grew up with a lot of noise, a lot of music, and a lot of laughter.

“Always ask the turtle.” 

“If the shoe doesn't fit, must we change the foot?” 

 A girl should be two things: who and what she wants.

"My life didn’t please me, so I created my life."

 “Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.”

“My attitude toward progress has passed from antagonism to boredom. I have long ceased to argue with people who prefer Thursday to Wednesday because it is Thursday.” 

“War is not ‘the best way of settling differences;’ it is the only way of preventing their being settled for you.”

The only way to be sure of catching a train is to miss the one before it. 

Get on your bikes and ride!

Be a lamp for yourselves. Be your own refuge. Seek for no other. All things must pass. Strive on diligently. Don’t give up.