Kids under, I'd say, 14 are still maturing; they are still growing. They are still understanding themselves. To hit them with something like 'Roots,' to hit them with this particular period of time, it's important to discuss the matters beyond the program itself.

One of the biggest things that I took from playing Kunta Kinte was where his strength came from in knowing where he was from.

My roots go back to West Africa, but my last name is Kirby, which is not an African name.

I was 22 when my mother gave me the original box set of 'Roots' and she said, 'I want you to watch this.' I watched the whole thing back to back in the span of 24 hours. It had a profound effect on me. It felt like my story.

Parents are usually more careful to bestow knowledge on their children rather than virtue, the art of speaking well rather than doing well; but their manners should be of the greatest concern.

House Republican leadership have refused to allow a clean minimum wage vote. Close to 15 million Americans will be affected if we did this. Do Republicans really expect a family to live on less than $11,000 a year?

I am the only one in my family to get into acting.

There was a time in my life when I wasn't popular and accepted by kids in school. I was made fun of with braces and kinky hair and being from a multicultural family, et cetera.