When you've moved past a point where you're just scrambling for jobs, you think about the things that you want to do. And the things that you want to do are governed by what you've seen, what you choose to embrace.

I read Fanon when I was 20, and his writings moved me, ... It's very important for me to be involved in consciousness-raising.

I read Fanon when I was 20, and his writings moved me. It's very important for me to be involved in consciousness-raising.

Some of these things I saw in foreign films - African films, Cuban films - long before I decided to really go on this course as an actor. I started to think about what values I saw in those films that I wanted to bring to my projects.

Black culture is a fight. We want to hold on to what we are, but sometimes the things that we are can be totally negative. You have to think: can't we try something new and not be seen as suspect?

The breaking point was to stand outside on 116th Street and have five cabs pass me up.