Broadway needs to let go of any fear that it won't succeed and take a knee. There's this rhetoric about being grateful and happy that you're getting paid for your art. We are told to put our own stuff aside, but doesn't everyone have a job they should just shut up and do?

Okieriete Onaodowan

I want to exercise all my muscles. I want to do plays. I want to do everything.

Okieriete Onaodowan

As you get older, you grow and you revaluate.

Okieriete Onaodowan

With 'Hamilton,' what's cool about the show is that even super-old white people come to see the show and hang on every word, it's that good.

Okieriete Onaodowan

I knew nothing of American History because I didn't pay attention to American History in school. Because I did not see myself in American History in school.

Okieriete Onaodowan

The finances of a smash hit do not affect the actors in any way shape or form, it's the attention that comes with it. If it's a financial hit, then a lot of people are seeing it.

Okieriete Onaodowan

We put so much of ourselves onstage and we work so hard, that I never get tired of people telling me 'you're awesome.'

Okieriete Onaodowan

Despair is despair, sorrow is sorrow, death is death. It's not about who is experiencing it; it's about building a bridge of empathy across these experiences.

Okieriete Onaodowan

There's something to be said about seeing your face represented. There's just something really important about that. It just draws you in more.

Okieriete Onaodowan

Young kids who are out there who are upset and angry, they can watch this and realize that you can speak out through your pen and not just with rage and anger, and challenge the people who are telling you things that you don't like to hear, like 'Hamilton' did.

Okieriete Onaodowan

The arts was always a place where I could be present.

Okieriete Onaodowan

The great thing about 'Hamilton,' for me, is so many people have been exposed to and are more open to hip-hop and certain artists, despite the stigma that had before been attached to it.

Okieriete Onaodowan

It was just really exciting to see dark people in white people's clothing, or what is perceived as white people garb.

Okieriete Onaodowan

What we do in theatre is unlike film or any other medium. We can never really truly see the work that we made because we're in in.

Okieriete Onaodowan

All that acting and all that stuff and emoting and crap will come after you know what you're doing. So when you get - when I get on stage, I don't have to think about it.

Okieriete Onaodowan

I just loved listening to hip-hop, I love the words. The angry words resonated with me.

Okieriete Onaodowan

It meant the world to see kids excited about theatre. That's the great thing about 'Hamilton' for me is to see young people who wouldn't normally think theatre is cool being really excited about how it works and getting involved.

Okieriete Onaodowan

They're so effusive with their love... theatre fans. I'm a big comic book fan and there's a lot of parallels with them that they're just dedicated and loyal.

Okieriete Onaodowan

Hip-hop was born of people who did not have a voice. They were not heard. And those people exist and are a part of a framework of life... as long as that's true, people will gravitate to hip-hop.

Okieriete Onaodowan

It feels good to create, and to actually have input, and your choices are your choices.

Okieriete Onaodowan

I don't want to be anyone but me, but as a versatile as possible.

Okieriete Onaodowan