Top 65 Quotes & Sayings by Andre Holland

Everybody gathered at my Aunt Hannah's house, and we sat around and talked, ate, drank and told lies. That's what people do, and I just sat there and listened.

I've written a couple of scripts. Actually, a pilot. I'm not sure I'm allowed to say, but it's a comedy about three young men in New York City, one of whom may or may not be a romantic like me.

A lot of people in the movie business don't have a point of reference for me; nobody really knows who I am.

I did my undergrad at Florida State, got a Bachelor's, and then I got my Masters in Acting at NYU. So I've spent a lot of time in the classroom.

With 'Selma,' I grew up in Alabama, 45 minutes away from Selma. I have gone to that commemorative march many times with my parents.

Theater is where I have the most experience and feel most at home, but I'm really, really loving film.

In '42,' it's like the '40s where racial equality had come into the consciousness of a lot of people, whereas in the 1900s it was sort of a new thing.

When you live in an environment where you aren't allowed to be fully who you are, you aren't taken seriously, and you aren't respected. What that actually does to a person's confidence and psyche is really fascinating to me.

I need to find those projects more often: the ones that really, really speak to me. I do better work in those situations and have a better time.

Shakespeare is definitely my first love.

I do enjoy history. That's one of the things that I love about acting is you get a chance to really dive into history and develop a real personal opinion about it.

Whenever I have a play or opening or anything going on in my career, my parents always come up and see it.

I read a lot of W.E.B. Du Bois, who wrote 'The Souls of Black Folk.'

When I was in school, and even after, I did a lot of classic plays, and I guess it sort of extended into film.

I started out doing a lot of theater, a lot of Shakespeare, classic plays.

I think that a man should not be shy; you should say what you really think and feel - put it out there.

Frankly, I think that's something that black people in America have often done - finding ways under very, very difficult circumstances to be subversive, but also to push things forward. And I think that applies to music. I think it applies to dance. I think it applies to a number of things.

With theater, depending on the audience, the show is different every night and really requires your constant concentration. With film, it's more possible to focus for shorter, more intense bits of time.

I'm the old-school, letter-writing romantic. I know it's out of style, and not a lot of women go for that these days, but that's what I go for.

I've lost friends over texting because I'm so bad at it.

It's not every day you get to be in a movie about Jackie Robinson, so you want to do it as right as you can.

I grew up in Alabama in a very small town and didn't have access to the finest of anything, really. But my mother was the kind of woman who just wanted us, me and my sisters, to be exposed to any and anything she could find.

I studied acting in NYU's graduate program, in which we covered everything from Ibsen and Chekov to August Wilson and David Mamet.

Never lived in L.A. I've always done the New York thing.

My goal has always been to try to live up to every ounce of my potential. For me, that means working with the best people and working with the best material.

If someone wanted to do a biopic about me, I would like for them to consult my family.

I think that's what makes characters interesting - when you paint a person into a corner, and you see what they do to get out of that corner. It's what makes drama drama.

'The Knick' is set in New York during the 1990s, and it takes place around a hospital called The Knickerbocker. It's about a team of surgeons and nurses who are on the cutting edge of medicine.

You have to see through one's faults before you see their need.

Working on Shakespeare and learning about Shakespeare was the big takeaway for me.

I personally feel like black people in America have contributed so much for so long, and haven't always gotten credit for it.

I went down and spoke to some of the people who lived in the neighborhood in Miami. At the end of the day I think my connection with Tarell [Alvin McCraney] is what helped me the most.

I had a cheat sheet because I knew Tarell [Alvin McCraney]. His movie is largely autobiographical. I knew about certain events in his life and some of the people he talks about. I had visited the place where he lived many times so I understood innately what that was.

Politically, nowadays, as we know and feel, we are similarly underrepresented and not heard.

People do come up to me quite a lot. I get called all of it. I rarely get called my name; it's usually "Hey, Dr. Edwards!" or "Algernon." The most common thing is, "You're the black doctor on that show!" I'll take any of it, because I've definitely been called much worse things.

I am also producing and writing a bunch.

I definitely want to work with people who are artists and who are interested in being their best version of themselves.

The surgeries were the hardest scenes for me because it's literally balancing so many balls in the air, at the same time, and each surgery is different.

Things maybe take longer usually when it comes to TV - especially network TV. There are usually multiple levels that you have to go through in terms of the casting director, the producers, the studio, the network, reading with other people.

I just hope to work with great people, and do things that are challenging for me and that I can be proud of and not have to hide my face about. Those are my guidelines.

I want to shift my career back to shows like The Knick. I prefer the classic drama structure.

There are so many brilliant, trained actors of color in America. If you just think about it, every year in the spring Julliard and NYU and Yale and hundreds of schools across the country graduate classes of trained actors, and in those classes are actors of color. So to say that there aren't enough actors of color is factually inaccurate.

Barry Jenkins just cast the right people and framed things the right way.

I just want to play interesting characters, and I want to work with the best directors I can work with.

People sometimes say, "What is your dream role?" I don't really have a dream role. I'll know it when I see it.

You turn up in the morning, you get through hair and make-up, and then you are on set working until it's time to go home. And I love that. Coming from the theater, you just turn up and you're ready for whatever happens. That energy really appeals to me.

The policies enacted during segregation are still being felt in Birmingham.

I love to sing. I'm definitely not a very good singer, but when I'm in my shower I get down for sure.

I think working on Shakespeare was a big part of my time at drama school. I'm so glad that I got to know Shakespeare and got a chance to play great parts in Shakespeare, because it really teaches you - or taught me, anyway - everything.

Historically it has been a touchy subject, especially in the south where I am from, people don't really talk about it. If they do talk about it, it is often talked about negatively. Nowadays in light of the Black Lives Matter movement I think people should pay attention to these lives also. I think the Black community will really embrace the film [Moonlight]. It is about us. It is real.

Now, perhaps more than ever, we need more and more examples of healing. We need to learn what it takes to heal.

All the craft skills that I have, I feel like I developed and honed in drama school. It's the most important thing for me.

It is that rare film [Moonlight] that comes along once in a while that catches the zeitgeist. This movie is that. I certainly have my fingers crossed that it is. Everyone needs to see this movie.

I look at it [Moonlight] and young Alex Hibbert who plays the young Chiron gives such a beautiful performance. By the time you get to the third story there have been so many great performances that you forget this kid was brilliant. Everybody does their job. It really is a true ensemble. I wish that were a category at the Oscars.

It [Moonlight movie] deals with drug addiction, drug dealing, and single parenthood, but they are three dimensional characters. You understand where they are from and what they are trying to do with their lives. It is not a stereotype that has been pasted onto somebody. These are stories that come from Barry's [ Jenkins] and Tarell's [Alvin McCraney] mothers.

The way people are responding to [Moonlight movie] is something we never anticipated. We knew it was good but it is so diverse. The way people are reacting shows me that everyone sees themselves in it. That is groundbreaking. Similarly people come up some older people that it is not their story but are just crying in our arms after a screening. They know what it was like to be bullied or struggled with their own identity trying to figure out who they are. It has really caught people's imaginations.

My goal has always been to try to live up to every ounce of my potential.

When you're playing Shakespeare, it forces you to think and feel and speak all at the same time, which really is what acting is. It expands your imagination and expands your size of thinking.

If I find great material, or a great character, or a great director that wants to do something on TV, or whether it's in film, or whatever it is, man - as long as it's good, and on the level, I'm open to it.

[Theater] has always been a big focus. I have been away from it for the past few years. I want to get back to it!