We rehearsed for two weeks in Fences, and we taped out the whole house in the front, and the rooms, and we stood it up like a play. We tried to get off book and gave people small props.

When you make a movie it's always interesting, because you end up in places you never would as a normal visitor or tourist.

I called Scott Rudin, and I told him I wanted to do the play Fences, so that's how the ball got rolling. I never said, I'll do the play, and the next year I'll do the film, I just wanted to do the play.

I think a role model is a mentor -- someone you see on a daily basis, and you learn from them.

I'm not a big Hollywood star. I'm an actor. I'm called a star. That's not what I am. First of all I'm a human being; my profession is acting. People give you titles. They say you're an up and coming star, then they say you're a star, then they say you're a washed-up star. So I don't get caught up in what I'm called. My job, my profession, is acting.

Viola Davis is one of the great actors of her generation. She has one of these moments in the theater that I don't even know how to describe.

You can't break me because you didn't make me.

People have said to me for a long time, Man you're funny. I say, Well, I'm quick, but being funny on purpose, take after take -- that's why I said for me it was new territory, and so by improvising something might come out that might be good. And it's film, so they can cut it if it isn't.

Come on, I know bad acting when I hear it.

I'm very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That's my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it's not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.

If you have an enemy, then learn and know your enemy, don't just be mad at him or her.

Bad guys need love too.

The poorest people are the sweetest people.

Every failed experiment is one step closer to success.

When you trust the director you want to trust his or her choices. I don't want to say, 'No, I don't like this girl or that guy, when the director really loves them. No, you want to go with what the director likes.

You don't pick black actors or black directors because they are black. You pick them because they are good. If you lend somebody 50 million dollars you want you're money back. You don't care if they are oppressed. You just want you're money back.

We all are doing the best we can. I would like to say that I'm a walking poster board for feminism and women's liberation, but there are things that I do in my life that deeply, deeply fall short of being a statement for being a strong woman. I am flawed as much as anyone else.

I am not going to bury my son! My son is going to bury me!

What it taught me was forgiveness. It taught me that when people present themselves in a certain way, there's probably some back story or issue or reason for the way that they are. It's not you. It's them. And a lot of times, its about something that's completely out of their control.

You will never see a U-Haul behind a hearse.