I think I was afraid of what I might say when I got onto someone's stage or in front of someone's camera.

Well, I look at it like this: When you go to a restaurant, the less you know about what happens in the kitchen, the more you enjoy your meal. If the soup tastes good, everything's cool, and you don't necessarily want to know what's in it. The same thing holds true with movies.

Too often a story is examined through biased eyes, without a sensitivity for everyone who forged it. It's seen from the point of view of the great white savior, and rarely is the perspective of the slave a part.

I'm not sure whether Los Angeles borders on the ocean or on oblivion. I always feel that I'm two steps away from the other side when I'm out there. It's more like a vacation place or a place to visit than a place to hunker down.

And it's one reason why I don't go to a lot of movies - they're more and more dominated by corporate values and fiscal concerns as opposed to cinematic concerns.

The great thing about movies is that they're collaborative. And the worst thing is that they're collaborative.

Shaft was a pop culture figure along t he lines of, I guess, Dirty Harry - except that he wasn't as much of a racist. So yeah, I was always a fan.

For lack of any clearer idea, I just started acting one day. It had been in the back of my head for a while, but I think in some ways I was afraid to do it, and finally I just stepped up.

I like to do theater and hopefully be effective. Most actors, at least contemporary actors of my generation, can't do it. They don't have the chops.

I like New York because you're kind of forced to smell everybody else's funk. So it keeps you biologically attached to the world around you.

I think I was afraid of what I might say when I got onto someone's stage or in front of someone's camera.

At the most base level, what an actor represents to the film industry is an investment. Depending on the risk profile, an investor needs 1,000 reasons to commit and one reason not to. That means you've got to do more work on your own, and that the machine is not going to necessarily do the blocking for you. The machine rarely accepted my code.

From an animation perspective, it doesn't get better than Pixar. You're working so much in the blind because the huge circle of collaborators that's required to pull off a film like this means that you are just one small arc in that large circle. The level of trust that you have to give into is significant.

I do have characters who are more well known than I am, which suits me fine.

I don't mind that I am not necessarily a household name, because I think my characters have outshined me. That was by design. And I'm not wanting for appreciation.

I don't really consider myself a black man in Hollywood. I live in Brooklyn... and on purpose.

I started surfing when I was working on 'The Hunger Games,' out on the north shore of Oahu, so about four years ago. I used to skateboard as a kid, kind of religiously, until I broke my leg riding in a pool when I was about 14 and I couldn't play football that fall.

I used to say that 'happy' was like 'lucky,' kind of imaginary. But now that I'm married and have children, I find that happiness is a real space.

I, Jeffrey Wright, the actor, actually signed on to the 'Westworld' Delos website. My profile came back as a Libertine, which is probably reasonably accurate.

Out of the blue, I received this offer and invitation to be a part of this movie, 'The Good Dinosaur.' I turned to my Pixar experts, my kids, and asked them what this could all be about. Of course, they flipped out, and it was pretty obvious from their reaction that I was going to do this.

Some musicians play blues, others classical jazz or bluegrass. I like to play political roles because I can merge my political interests with my creative interests.

We really don't discover fully what 'Westworld' is for this first season, until we get there. The first 10 episodes are the journey. The colors become brighter, the vistas become clearer, and the history is more understood with each step we take along the way.

Well, I like to be kept on my toes. I look for a challenge. I don't like to recreate steps that I've already walked. I like to see if I can create something new.

What I've appreciated about the 'Bond' films is there's always been a subtle social relevance to them. They've always commented on the times.

What I've learned in my career as an actor is that you're only as good as your collaborators. The process is many things, but it is wholly collaborative, particularly with something like 'Westworld,' which is a 10-episode-per-season gig, and we're just now on the 7th episode.

When you go to a restaurant, the less you know about what happens in the kitchen, the more you enjoy your meal.

I feel that if you want to make films, you have to be willing to make it without a fee. You get a deferment, I guess.

The success of this album is very much in question. Who knows where it's going to go? My being a Spice Girl is no guarantee of anything, although I hope it'll benefit the sales.

I tell my students, it's not difficult to identify with somebody like yourself, somebody next door who looks like you. What's more difficult is to identify with someone you don't see, who's very far away, who's a different color, who eats a different kind of food. When you begin to do that then literature is really performing its wonders.

I think the movie, 'Joy,' has so many touchpoints with so many people because it is about the ordinary, but a lot of the times, the ordinary is extraordinary.

The sign of intelligent people is their ability to control emotions by the application of reason.

I wish I were taller and thinner but the hair you can do something about.

I'm enjoying myself this year and for once I'm not chasing my fitness.

A baby nursing at a mothers breast is an undeniable affirmation of our rootedness in nature

Sometimes you're trying your best and you still can't find a solution, but I try not to waste my life living in a dark place.

A landline is an anchor - busy signals, long distance bills, missed connections and all.

If I had been a good student and an achiever, I might have been excited by a more systematic approach to writing than what I do.

Once someone told a potato you are fatThen it became a french fries and said now I am slim... but full of fat.

I basically took six or seven years off, but then I had another five or four of me not working at all because I was in school. It was really 13 years of me not working at all... I really couldn't even think about it.

We had reached rock bottom. We didnt want to go bankrupt we just thought this was the best way out.

When you're tied to one show, you are very much at the mercy of the writers, so you can suddenly get a script where you have a heart attack and die.

I'm not going to run for Senate, and I'm not going to run for governor - I'd like to put those rumors to rest.

I don't care about winning an MVP - the MVP doesn't mean you're the best player in the league.

I don't live in New York or California. I'm in the grocery store, at the park with my kids, and I'm a normal person. I'm feeding my chickens and agonizing about my next book!

I was not an easy kid.

In the olden days, the umpire didn't have to take any courses in mind reading. The pitcher told you he was going to throw at you.

Luck, like a Russian car, generally only works if you push it.

I'm drawn to a good story, really, as I hope most people are. For me, it's the story that's going to stay with you eventually, not necessarily the genre. I go to watch a film because of the story, not because it was a Western or a comedy.

My biggest ambition over everything is to have kids. It feels great. I'd love a big family.