The first time I was onstage, I felt like the audience was breathing with me. I don’t know if I was good or not; I just knew I was having a ball, and for the first time, I felt I belonged somewhere.

You look at how Barack Obama has had to conduct himself as President. It reminds me of Jackie Robinson, how he had to be very careful to reassure people that this was all right. And you still have people trying to tear him down. They make up all sorts of lies, with the goal of making him seem illegitimate.

I was in chemical engineering at Cornell University. My girlfriend at the time dared me to do a play. I knew there was something I wanted, not necessarily engineering.

I grew up listening to blues and rock n’ roll and other music, but, legitimately, the Stones is one of my favorite bands in the world.

I have a theater company that I’m a part of, Colt Coeur, and they do some really rad projects.

There is more equity now in movies and TV, although I think its mostly because of changing demographics. It’s not a moral proposition. It’s good business. Shows about people of all colors are making money.

I know I’m supposed to say this, but I really, genuinely think Matt Damon is a great dude.

I was a chemical engineer in school. And, randomly, an ex-girlfriend dared me to do a play.

I grew up listening to blues and rock ‘n’ roll and other music, but, legitimately, the Stones is one of my favorite bands in the world.

I love the notion of a dude sitting there with an untuned guitar tapping his foot and just singing his passion out; that’s what got me into music in the first place.

There’s some dues that you just have to pay in life.

I think I’m a good actor, but to replicate tens of thousands of man hours in surgery is really hard.

The first time I ever heard the blues, my parents had a stack of records that they weren’t using anymore. I found them when I was ten; I didn’t know what it was. But I found Lightnin’ Hopkins.

All of my friends on the street we’re Jewish. I went to a lot of bar and bat mitzvahs. I even learned a little Hebrew.

You look at how Barack Obama has had to conduct himself as president. It reminds me of Jackie Robinson, how he had to be very careful to reassure people that this was all right.

I’d never thought about acting as a job. I was an engineer; I was in science and technology. I loved movies and television growing up, but I’d never thought about it as, ‘Oh, that guy Denzel Washington is employed as an actor.’

Jason Bourne is supposed to be really sneaky and spry, but as soon as he walks by, everybody pulls out their cell phones and starts recording. That level of fame is wild to see.

When people say Jerry Lee Lewis invented rock n’ roll, they forget Little Richard. People talk about Elvis Presley and forget he was singing black music. I don’t blame Elvis. It was the music business figuring it could make more money from this music if it weren’t presented from the original source.

If you’re going to sign a contract, there are things you have to understand you might have to do. If you don’t, then you walk away.

Traveling, I’ve met Ghanaian people who have seen me in minor stuff, but they see the name Ato Essandoh, and they recognize it as a Ghanaian name. They come up to me and are always so excited. You don’t think about it, but they really absorb American culture.

My dad, when he was young, did Shakespeare in school, and my mom was a little bit of an artist, but everybody was pragmatic.

Just the little bit that I’ve learned about Judaism, I didn’t realize how, dare I say, intense that religion is as far as all of the things that you have to know and remember and the ritualism of it.

Never would I have thought that I would meet Mick Jagger, much less be working on the same project.

Every culture feels like their parents are the most stringent as far as, “We came to this country to work hard, we want you to be a doctor or a lawyer.”

When ‘Goodfellas’ is on TNT, and they’ve taken out all the curse words and put Tide commercials in the middle of it, I’ll still watch ‘Goodfellas’ because it’s that great of a movie.