On top of trying to find my way in this business and losing my mother and trying to figure out what family meant to me and everything - 2016, there was a lot of anger from me and a lot of anger all around. I think the hardest part was to really realize that all these things, it's worth it.Collection: Anger
You can put Trump in the White House, but you need to prepare for a revolt because I'm going nuts.
Life should be art, right?
It's really humbling and gratifying to see that people are finally realizing that we are talented and we have things to say and that our stories are just like your stories. There's no reason that anybody from Wisconsin or Turkey can't relate to 'Atlanta.'
Just to say 'woke' is to always be in a constant stream of consciousness where you don't feel like the wool is pulled over your eyes so much. You question your belief that everything should just be presented to you on this beautiful plate. Everything is not as it seems.
You can't share your magic with everyone. Your job is to live within your magic. And if other magical people find you, then let's go and make a brew.
Acting, for me, was kind of a way of survival, honestly. I'm the baby boy out of four different sisters, and I grew up in a house with so many different personalities that acting was the only way to not go to therapy.
I hope that there's a little black boy somewhere in Montana that never thought that he would see a reflection of himself, and he turns on the television, like, 'Oh my God, thank you.'
I was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which is where J. Cole is from. I went up to Washington, D.C., where my mother moved, to stay with her, and then moved back to North Carolina to finish junior high and high school.
My father had one of the biggest vinyl collections I've ever seen.
When I was three years old, one of the first albums I ever heard was Michael Jackson's 'Off the Wall.'
I love that you can just walk into the club and hear Young Jeezy or hear Fetty, and it's on.
I don't think I'm going to be back on 'This Is Us.' I think that Uncle Ricky had his moment; he did what he had to do.
I always say I'm not going to work: I'm going to play with my friends.
I never thought that 'Atlanta' would go off and do what it was gonna do. I never thought that I would get recognized for that show the way that I have been.
I'm very grateful, first of all, for my friends and my family because they keep me grounded, and they make sure I'm taking care of myself and that I'm keeping my sanity about me.
I stay in contact with my castmates from 'Atlanta' almost every day.
Aja Naomi is one of my good friends.
I love the element of surprise, throwing people off of what they think they know about what I can do and who I am. I just want to keep doing that.
Hug your mom. Hug your mom and thank your mom.
There's something about being onstage, man. No matter what age I am or where I'm going, theater will constantly be the thing that accepts me and embraces me.
My sisters were teenagers when I was born, so the last thing they wanted was a little nappy-headed boy running around. I would imitate them or copy things off TV.
At Morehouse, I found myself and my voice, and I didn't want to lose that at Yale.
Atlanta has become and has always been a place where you create your own universe.
My father was retired military, and my mother was an educator. She was incredibly creative. I used to love going to her school during the summer and helping her decorate her classroom. I would draw Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck. She was a sixth grade teacher. She and my father are the ones that got me into my love of music.
I learned everything I know about music from my parents and my sisters.
Acting really started for me because I was in a house full of adults. They never shielded their lives from me. They were adults going through this world doing what they had to do. I used to like to watch them and imitate them. They all have their own distinct personalities; even though they're family, we couldn't be more different people.
I was working with the likes of Steve McQueen, Matthew McConaughey, Viola Davis, just running the gamut.
There's no redemption in being robbed. Yeah, maybe you can replace that thing, but it will never be the way it was when you got it the first time. It'll never have the same weight and preciousness again.
I say this all the time: All I know is I know nothing at all.
My school had the dopest arts program - the dopest show choir, the dopest marching band. I couldn't sing or play an instrument a lick, but I was just going to fake it till I make it.
Music has always been a part of my life, and it helps me a lot because it speaks for me when I can't speak for myself.
I've discovered people in my lifetime who are like, 'I always wanted to sing but... ' It's like, 'Well then, did you try?' My thing was always not caring about failure.
When people ask me, 'Are you a singer?' I say, 'No, I'm not a 'singer' - but I love the craft of singing,' going in and finding out what that means or why the hell I'm singing in the first place. My thing is really the craft of it.
You see the Paper Bois - easy. Personas are easy to touch and see and digest. But you don't get the chance to really see who the Alfreds are. I want to make sure I did that with him.
I went to college in Atlanta, so I know that city.
The rap scene is so unique. Every rapper has to bring their own thing.
I'm a big guy: I look like a linebacker, you know? But no one cares, really, that I'm educated. I have a copy of 'Fire Next Time' by James Baldwin in my bag. I have an Ibsen play in there, too. I have to walk through this world with that duality all the time, that I live in two different worlds.
I discovered that acting gave me this spark, this thing. Honestly, it was a way to survive.
Hip-hop is not about pretense. You can be missing an eye; you can have an ice-cream cone in your face; you can run around with Bantu knots; you can decide to wear gold, all everything. It's not about how you look - it's about what you say. It's about what message you're getting across.
The projects that I've been fortunate enough to do are all projects where I followed my heart. I didn't follow the money or the names. It's all about reflecting my life and my art.
You play the honesty of the characters and show a side of them that people can relate to and want to get to know.
I was in a musical for a while, and I sing around the house all the time, but I don't ever think of myself as a singer.
If you are conscious and really want change in this world, and you don't vote, then what was all the fighting for? All the things our parents and our parents' parents fought for?
I hope Paper Boi runs for president. I hope he does. Governor, mayor, senator, I hope he does it all. You better believe it.
Sometimes, you need someone to believe in you when you don't believe in yourself.
Being in a club - clubs are, like, not my favorite thing.
I was in show choir in high school.
Atlanta's a great city to cultivate your own thing - from fashion to music to food.
I think that Atlanta has this huge well of black culture and openness to share all the things that we have made there.