Every morning that I wake up and I'm breathing, I can feel it and take a moment to say, you know, 'Thank God I'm alive for another day.'
Ron Cephas Jones
Beale Street is a very famous street in the history of America. You know, American music in particular. From the blues to jazz, it's a connecting city from New Orleans that goes all the way up to Buffalo through New York.
God bless my mother; I know you're looking down on me.
I wanted to be a jazz musician.
When you know your history, you have a better vision of where you're going. And, when you have that, there's no stopping you.
Life is precious - very, very precious.
I can use all the hugs I can get.
I have a very close relationship with my daughter.
I've always loved Harlem and its communities.
I like to shop for old jazz albums.
I have a beautiful collection of albums and try to frequent record stores.
That's my job as an actor - to go on and try to do the work so subtle and so fine and specific that the memories will linger for a long time.
Every actor wants that - to have a great character and then continue to add more into the depth of his life.
I don't think there's a day that goes by where I go to the supermarket that a woman doesn't come up and want to give me a hug. It's a crazy thing when you're in the freezer department and some woman comes up behind you and says, 'Can I just hug you, please?' When it first happened, it really blew my mind.
'Essence' is political. I grew up on the magazine, looking at the covers. Seeing ourselves on the cover is political.
Jazz, and the history of jazz, is the history of America.
I learned a lot about American history though jazz, and that's why I loved American history when I was in high school. I could hear different stories - the story that they would tell in school, and then the story that I would hear in the music.
My daughter gets a lot of her natural music ability from her mother because she's a world-class singer, also.
As we like to say on 'This Is Us,' death is not a release. Our main character has never been alive for the entire run!
When you're young, you want things to happen right away. And sometimes that doesn't always develop in the way you want it to. But my thing was to continue to work, in whatever element I could.
Acting is revealing the truth that is already within you and that reflects the character that you're doing.
There's a fine line between lead actor and supporting actor.
I think most actors don't start out wanting to be either a lead or a character actor. You just really want to work, whatever manifestation that takes.
I have people that have died from cancer and friends that are dealing with cancer.
I'm a Jersey kid originally, and I went to Ramapo State College. That was back in '78.
Caliban is one of the most difficult characters to play because there's not a lot of history there. It's sort of a half-animal, half-man, and there's not a lot of background.
There's a lot of truth in family relationships.
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was a very savvy character. His drinking and carousing, his charisma and intelligence... the things he did in Congress. He passed for white, then became a black advocate.
