When I started, I was aware of using the black as a rhetorical device. It's understanding that black people come in a wide range of colors, but you find instances in a lot of black literature in which the blackness is used as a metaphor. In some places, you can find an extreme blackness used as a descriptive.

I gave up on the idea of making art a long time ago, because I wanted to know how to make paintings; but once I came to know that, reconsidering the question of what art is returned as a critical issue.

I used to always say - and I think a lot of artists think of it this way - that when you see a black figure, the way the critical establishment operated, you can only imagine that figure having a sociological value. They never say the ways in which their aesthetics were equally worthy of consideration.

I see myself as having fulfilled a lot of my ambition. All the things I dreamed of achieving, I've achieved for the most part.

I think you have to take each movie for its own value. There will be those you'll roll your eyes over and others you can't wait to see. It all has to do with the intention. If someone's intention is just to make money and exploit something for profit, then it's not good. If it's thoughtfully done, the proof's in the pudding.

I really came out to L.A. to take the money and run.

Money can't buy life.

I used to listen to 'Ready to Die' around the time I dropped out of college. I was scrambling for work and money.