"I never really had any aspirations to be an actor when I was young. I wanted to play the piano in a bar, to be the old dude with a whisky glass, all dishevelled."

"If I do decide one day to stop acting, I just hate the idea of people going: 'Oh, did you ever do anything else besides that Twilight thing?'"

"I don't really know how to act, I kind of wanted to somehow make it real, and one of the ways I've always thought makes that a little bit easier is if you shake up your physical state just before action. You end up walking into a scene having a different feeling."

"I knew in a flash Gary had something I should never have. It is something pure and he doesn't know it's there. In truth, that boy hasn't the least idea how well he acts."

"I have a face like the behind of an elephant."

"All his tough talk is a blind, you know. He's a literate, gracious, kind man, with wonderful manners, and he speaks beautifully — when he wants to."

"Method actors give you a photograph. Real actors give you an oil painting."

"They can't censor the gleam in my eye."

"[I have a face that would] stop a sundial and frighten small children into fits."

"It's got so that every time I walk into a restaurant, I get not only soup but an impersonation of Captain Bligh."

"Hollywood is a goofy place. But I like it. It's the perfect mummers' home. If one weren't a little mad one wouldn't be there."

"In light of that ... I knew I had to utilize my time very effectively and efficiently to get my work done"

"I needed my son to see me put the work in. I needed to set an example"

"Entering into State, I was going through certain professional challenges and frustrations in my career"

"I had to have faith in the strength of the work"

"and the fact that even though it's not a meritocracy, that the work would shift my position as a creative worker to a place that it would mean something beyond itself"

"but I'm still believing in myself, man. I am. I'm not being defined by my circumstances."

"What that meant for me: It meant bringing everything — every single thing that I had accumulated at that point in my life, in terms of my professional experience — and focusing it into my studies at San Francisco State. It was not always easy"

"My introduction to Spike – our introduction to each other – unlocked a door for me creatively and culturally that I simply would not have had in the same way"

"People need to be aware that at the best of times, the infrastructure in Jamaica needs a lot to be desired. So for an island like Jamaica to suffer this kind of a tragedy is even more devastating"

"She’s very committed, and I remember the manner in which she applied herself to her work was always extremely intentional, and very much about the business of doing the best work possible"

"When I think about my films with Spike, and then with Ryan, here I am at a point in my life and my career where I can look back and say: ‘My God, how fortunate am I to be part of that firmament, part of that creative environment"

"I remember there was a newspaperman who sunk a lot of Denver Post money into getting that theater off the ground"

"The artistic director – Edward Payson Call – was very enthusiastic about me as an actor, and it was the inaugural opening of this theater company and three beautiful new theaters"

"I approach the work attempting to find out who this human being is. Because of Delta Slim’s history, because of his virtuosity, and because he has lived — because I have lived the years that I have lived, I have a history. All of those things connect to the larger story that Ryan wants to tell in terms of where and how the blues music is situated inside of American culture"

"I’m inspired. I’m inspired because I look at a film like that, and I say, that cannot have been easy for her to get that film made. And so the challenges that I face getting my film made, it inspires me to keep moving, to keep moving forward, to keep striving. Because … there are so many stories that do not get told. And I was speaking with some film cinema students and I was saying that despite the fact that the landscape of cinema — and let’s for a second just talk about American cinema, the landscape of American cinema, I’m not going to say it’s narrow, but this is what I will say — there are so many other stories that could be added that could be contributing and be part of the landscape of American cinema. And one has to — and this is part of my appreciation for ‘On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,’ and it sounds very clichéd — but one has to have believe. One cannot lose sight of one’s own belief, more so in the face of the rejection that invariably one will face"

"And what I would ask is that however people are responding to the tragedy of Hurricane Melissa, that they would do whatever they can to help find out which organizations can help. I’m personally aware of an organization called Breds. They are based in Treasure Beach, but there are other organizations, and I would just ask, please, please, please donate whatever you can because obviously the need is huge. Had Melissa not happened, there would be significant need in Jamaica. That’s the nature of the economics of Jamaica. This tragedy has just exacerbated everything, so please give what you can"

"If you are able to embrace your challenges and put them to constructive use, that’s where magic can happen"

"I needed for him to see me applying myself, so that hopefully the example I would set for my 3-year-old son would translate into his educational desires later on in his life"

"It was not an affirmation for my ego. It was just an affirmation for who I was, as a little Black kid in this all-white elementary school"

"In the final analysis, our humanity was front and center"

"The Long, Occasionally Dark, and Ultimately Triumphant Career of Delroy Lindo,20 April 2021"

"So I ended up speaking with this young man, and one of the things I said to him is that I am first and foremost thrilled and blessed to continue to work, and to be working on important projects. I know it’s a really hackneyed, overused term, but it’s true for me: I am thrilled and blessed."

"I do have family there, and I am intending on actually shooting a film there that I’m going to direct and co-produce and act in. As a person of Jamaican extraction, I’m always looking for ways in which I can contribute meaningfully to the island. And for me, making my film in Jamaica is a way of contributing and putting people to work. And so Jamaica is never far from my thoughts and how I can help and contribute"

"So here is this little Black kid who all of a sudden is in school with these white kids, and the parents of those kids are looking at this little Black kid"

"But what I can also tell you is that I had to pick myself up and keep moving forward"

"I will not allow those kinds of disappointments, those kinds of snubs, rejections"

"It knocked me sideways for a second"

"I knew that when I started directing for film, I wanted to make sure that the narratives resonated for me,"

"I will not allow those things to define who I am. Because I understand I am bigger and better than that. And each and every one of you are also."

"Going to Denver was terrific, and I very much looked forward to being there"

"For some reason, I have the figure of $13 million in my head"

"I had gone to Denver full of optimism and enthusiasm. I remember a gentleman there saying something to me like, ‘Oh, you should be doing more in this production.’ And I thought, ‘You know what? I agree"

"I’ve always considered Tyne Daly to be a very serious actor, and I mean that in the best sense of that term"

"To me, the enduring cultural significance of this film is that it is incredibly affirming, and it makes me joyous that that’s pretty much what audiences have picked up – White and Black, across the board"

"If I said it, I believed it, and I’m sure it had to do with my ambition to elevate myself and to be part of a system of work that elevated Black performers"

"And the manner in which I communicated that to the producer—and he agreed, by the way—was not as diplomatic as it could have been. And when one, as I was in this particular case, is being paid a lot of money to be in a project, to come to the producer and express dissatisfaction with the material, that can be seen as an affront"

"Fill it up, about ship wheel it, Close to our lips a brimmer join: Where's the tempest now, who feels it? None — the danger's drown'd in wine."

"One wide water all around us: All above us one black sky; Different deaths at once surround us: Hark! what means that dreadful cry?"

"Cease, rude Boreas, blustering railer! List, ye landsmen, all to me; Messmates, hear a brother sailor Sing the dangers of the sea."