Do you want to be an actor, or do you want to be a celebrity? I made that decision when I went to Juilliard. I wanted to be an actor. So, if I get the opportunity to be an actor and do some cool, fun and interesting projects, I'm going to do that.

Everybody knows when you've got a role in a Spike Lee movie, you're gonna blow up. But I happen to be the only person who's had the lead in the two Spike Lee movies nobody saw.

I did this movie with Spike Lee called 'Sucker Free City,' and that would have to be my favorite role by far. It was just so much fun to work with Spike and shoot in San Francisco.

I enjoy where I am and I don't have a problem with being Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci, Don Cheadle, or Jeffrey Wright. They're not the lead of every movie they're in, but every time you see them they're really good.

I was raised with a sense of entrepreneurship - my father owned a roofing business, and I grew up with the idea that you never want someone telling you what you can and cannot do.

In New Orleans, where I'm from, the average household income, with two working parents, two kids, a dog and a little fence is $16,000 a year, so $15,000 for a movie sounds pretty good.

The great thing about it is, in Hollywood, certain people are very good at keeping their lives and who they are very private. I've never met anybody as down to earth and cool in Hollywood than Matt Damon.

I went to school and made good grades and went to college. So I was afforded an opportunity through my parents' hard work that most people don't have.

So I feel like success is opportunity plus preparation, so work begets work, and as long as you're prepared it's going to continue to come your way.

The choices that we make through our lives, the people who intersect us on our path kind of change what our fated destiny is. So some of us are lucky enough for the choices that we make to keep us on our path.

Art-school girls are very nice.

At Juilliard, I couldn't afford to have fun. I went to school and stayed home.

Every time I get mad, I grab my hammer and make a bookshelf or something.

I got a job as soon as I graduated from school. I always wanted to bartend because I love listening to people and how awful their lives are.

I just don't understand how people can get so caught up in having their picture taken.

I like movies. Movies have afforded me a modicum of luxuries. The thing about the movies is, if you're bad in a movie, you're bad forever.

I would love to be a superhero.

I'm a firm believer in people who love what they do.

I'm not Josh Brolin or Ryan Gosling. They're more noir than I.

If everyone invested in the neighborhood they lived in, the United States would be a magical place.