I think art, at its best, happens on a conscious and a subconscious level.

I kind of think we sort of subconsciously draw things into our lives, whatever we're trying to work through.

I got my Equity Card with my Broadway debut when I did 'Rent.' I was in high school, and I came to New York to do that show.

That was the bat signal for me - 'Rent' changed my life. It took me years before I got beyond that show.

I know what feeling broke feels like real well. I know that real well.

When I step on the stage and sing 'Wait for It,' I'm singing that for everybody. I don't mean I'm singing it for them; I mean, you are their voice.

Nothing lasts forever in my profession.

What goes up must come down; I'm not going to be in 'Hamilton' forever. Everything I work on won't have this kind of success.

As an artist, I'm very used to waking up and sort of not knowing what my day's going to be and not knowing where my next paycheck is going to come from.

What a casting director does is they're a connector.

I know what it's like to be ignored; when I got to L.A., I longed for somebody who looked like me to show me the ropes.

I wanted to make an album that was hopeful and encouraging and inspiring. That was the goal.

Until you make a name for yourself, they're like, 'Be a little more Denzel,' 'Be a little more Wesley Snipes.'

I think I spent most of my childhood, and my early years as a performer, in student mode. And I think that's OK - I mean, it led me to where I am.

I don't have any control over the offers that are going to come to me or not come to me. But I can't go backward, and so that's what's tricky.

The bad guys have way more fun, in my opinion. 'Bad guys' in quotes.

I feel like every night, when you see a really good production of 'Romeo and Juliet' or something, you should hope that it ends differently. That's why we watch our favorite movies again and again.

When I see the black experience - there's not one, but it is specific, and you can't ignore it.

I've been involved with 'Hamilton' for about two and a half years. I've learned so much. I came into it a young man. Now I've dropped the 'young.'

I think it was, my parents got me a karaoke machine when I was about 9 years old. Even before that, they got me a tape recorder that I used to walk around my life with. And there was something about recording and then hearing myself back.

The only reason to keep talking about history is if you are juxtaposing it with the world that we live in today, if you are learning something about our world by looking at the way they shaped their world.

I'm an artist, and I like art that gets people talking, good or bad. Criticism is good, too.

When we go and cheer Cynthia Erivo on in 'The Color Purple,' it's because we've elected her to be our voice. She sings 'I'm Here' for all of us.

'Rent' opened up my heart, my senses. I was never the same. I hadn't been back in that place in the same way since. 'Hamilton' put me back in that place.