American - Director | February 10, 1956 -
I love film because you have the last word. I never get that on stage because you've got to really believe; you've got to get the actors to trust you, and they have to believe in you, and then hopefully they will when you open the show.
Kenny Leon
LoveTrustBelieveYouWillNever
President Obama became our first African American president, and for me, it is the stuff of which dreams are made.
DreamsMeAmericanPresidentFirst
I don't know how racists live with their racism. We need to take the road of love. I don't think folks are born that way; it's learned and taught out of fear.
LoveFearLiveRacismRoadThink
Broadway is the same as Hollywood. Every few years we say we reached the mountaintop, then we take two steps back.
BackSayHollywoodTwoSameYears
Great theater continues to bind us, one to the other, and most of us will travel far and wide to see a good story told well.
GoodGreatTravelStoryWillSee
I like working with actors who make choices. Whether they get their ideas from me or from themselves, I want them to own all the choices so I can take my hand out of it.
MeIdeasChoicesI CanWantHand
I came from the South with a mother who was hard working, so I love going to work every day.
WorkLoveMotherDayEvery DayHard
As I tell young people in workshops, 'It's your country. If you came here on the bottom of a slave ship, if your people came here seeking political freedom - however your folks got here - it belongs to you just as much as it belongs to anyone, so claim it. It's your birthright. America belongs to every person who is here.'
FreedomPeopleShipPoliticalYou
I think 'Holler If Ya Hear Me' is almost 'A Raisin in the Sun' 50 years later, with just a different 20-year-old voice speaking the words. But it's about access to the American dream and equal lives having equal value in America. It's still holding a mirror up to us so we can see ourselves.
MirrorWordsAmerican DreamValueMe
I've directed 'Raisin in the Sun' five times. You keep discovering things. You keep on seeing things in the script that you never saw before. That's what great pieces of art do.
GreatArtSunYouSeeingNever
I tried to stay off the stage, but you know, I'm an actor; I'm an artist.
YouArtistKnowActorStageStay
I always approach every play based on the cast. When Denzel and I did 'Fences,' I didn't go to rehearsals and say, 'OK, James Earl Jones did a wonderful job in '87. Let me see if you can come close to James Earl Jones.'
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