Men and women can absolutely be friends, and that's what we need to be. Part of the problem is that we aren't friends enough. Our relationships are negotiations, and that is not friendship.Collection: Friendship
I've done romantic comedy, and I don't get to flex that muscle often.Collection: Romantic
The most impactful place that I've been to where I was just completely awestruck, happy, moved is Victoria Falls between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is probably the most beautiful and romantic place in the world.Collection: Romantic
I think our biggest problem is lack of real, honest communication between black men and black women. A lot of men talk amongst men, and a lot of women speak amongst women.Collection: Communication
The word 'courage,' one of my favorite words, the root or the etymology of that word is 'cour,' which means heart. I think true courage is actually following your heart and not getting or succumbing to what other people's definition of what your life should be. Live your life.Collection: Courage
The real important things are kindness and a sense of humor. I've been fortunate to have dated and could have easily married women who have those qualities, and time and circumstances didn't work out. Timing plays a big part.Collection: Humor
'The Conversation' will hopefully touch on issues that will move people to want to strengthen communication and look to each other for solutions.Collection: Communication
You can't build anything with a flimsy foundation. Friendship is the foundation.Collection: Friendship
When I'm acting, that's all I'm doing. When I'm not acting, I'm not thinking about acting. If I'm writing, I'm just writing.
I say 'date potential.' The reason why is no matter who you date, anyway, five years from now, you're going to be different, and he's going to be different. The key is to really find somebody that you can grow with that you can change with, evolve with and that you can be partners with.
What I've found in doing research is that men want a relationship that feels fun. In other words, they want a relationship that has qualities or elements of their same-sex relationships - just like women do, too.
We're living in a time, unfortunately, where, you know, a lot of young men, particularly young men of color, being raised by single mothers. And their mothers so desperately want to connect with them, but I found, in talking with a lot of young men, that sometimes it's difficult.
With my first book, 'A Letter to a Young Brother,' I figured it would be my only book I was ever going to write. What happened with that is a lot of young men would reach out to me.
I'm really proud of the characters I've been able to play. Certainly, playing the character on 'CSI' as Dr. Sherman Hawkes is a wonderful stereotype-busting role.
Whenever there's an opportunity to celebrate the written word and celebrate the folks that read the written word, and, I think, to encourage other writers to write and encourage folks to read more and get connected to it in a personal way, it's a positive thing.
For me, self-esteem-building and confidence-building is the foundation for anything that we do, whether you want to be a writer, a painter, or a entrepreneur.
People always think about what prison is. What prison really is - it's not a physical challenge, it's mental.
We all have inherited so many types of fears, whether they're race-based, culture-based, gender-based, age-based, family-based. And then we get comfortable with these fears.
It's important for someone like me - who's known Obama for 20 years - to speak the truth. I know him to be a Christian man. I know him to be one of the greatest patriots.
My first two books, 'Letters to a Young Brother' and 'Letters to a Young Sister,' were... distributed pretty widely. Judges in juvenile justice facilities started citing the book as required reading.
No matter how bad something gets, no matter where you come from, you can achieve anything. I really do believe that.
My friend is a former race car driver, so he races for Mercedes, and I root for him. I have a car that I love to race, I'll take it to the track.
The wealth cure is looking at your life step by step - making a diagnosis and saying, 'Am I using money or is money using me?'
Certainly, those of us in the entertainment industry, we are part of creating fear in people - 'fear' for me stands for 'false evidence appearing real.' We create fantasy, and in certain ways that's wonderful because it allows people to escape. But it can suck people into wanting to achieve something that isn't real.
My favorite vacation spot is a beautiful beach. I've been to many, many beaches on many continents: Mombasa, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Barbados, Mexico and the U.S. What's beautiful about beach communities is for whatever reason, they feel like vacation to me.
I've gotten a firsthand view at the destruction that black men and black women not being able to stay and build healthy relationships has had on the black family and black children.
There will always be crazy things that happen in our lives, but love is the central connector. If we commit to love and partnership, the other stuff doesn't matter.
What's interesting is with a lot of the work I do through my foundation, the 'Manifest Your Destiny' foundation, we really encourage people, and we attempt to empower, uplift and inspire people to live out their dreams, live out their destiny.
The longer you hold a dollar, the longer you hold money, the more valuable it becomes over time. So the younger you are, the more ability you have to hold money longer term.
There's nothing wrong with wanting a partner and doing the things to have one. To protect ourselves, we have to say, 'I don't need one.'
Even when you're out with someone, you need to get out of your head. And you can try exercises by putting yourself in situations where you may not feel completely comfortable, like going to a gallery opening on your own.
We all have different timetables in reaching and realizing that being in healthy partnership is better than being on our own.
Part of the problem in today's world is that many men are taught that they have to 'make it' before they should even consider committed to a healthy partnership.
Part of getting other people to focus on the future rather than being myopically focused on the present is about living that way yourself and showing that you can make choices today that are about future outcomes and still be having a great time into the present and enjoying your life.
My undergraduate studies at Brown and graduate degrees from Harvard prepared me for a multifaceted career as an actor, entrepreneur and philanthropist.
At the end of a down day on Wall Street, we all need to be able to sleep peacefully at night. That comfort won't come from our bank balance.