It's been a very long journey, and people have been immensely kind. They're not tired of watching me on television for a decade; they want to see more of me.
I do remember, one time, a man came to me after the students began to work in Mississippi and he said the white people were getting tired and they were getting tense and anything might happen. Well, I asked him "how long he thinks we had been getting tired"? I have been tired for 46 years and my parents was tired before me and their parents were tired, and I have always wanted to do something that would help some of the things I would see going on among Negroes that I didn't like and I don't like now.
My journey in Bollywood has been quite filmy, as it includes sleeping on railway platforms to teaching dance for a living. The journey has taught me a lot, and I am very grateful that all that happened with me. It helped me in becoming a more stronger man.
My hand is very tired but I want to go on writing. I keep resting and thinking. All day I have been two people - the me imprisoned in yesterday and the me out here on the mound; and now there is a third me trying to get in - the me in what is going to happen next.
My journey has been beautiful, more than what I could ask for. Of course there have been ups and downs but I've been fortunate and grateful for this journey. It has taught me a lot, I've grown, become a better actor and a human being.
Watching people react, watching people be inspired, be taken on a journey, forgetting their problems, looking ahead in their own lives to doing impossible things. That's kind of what drives me, gives me a sense of focus.
People have been watching me since I was eight. They've been watching me grow up, so they feel that connection with me.
Television viewers, they've been around a long time. They've been watching this thing now for 50 years. I mean, they know exactly what's happening when it comes to television programming. You can't put anything over on them anymore.
My journey has been very nice and gradual and steady. And I've found that my development as a human is very much synchronized to my journey as an artist. It's felt very organic since the beginning. And every step allows me to grow a little more.
I've been very lucky because Perth has been very good to me. I've enjoyed my journey and met so many wonderful people.
I've noticed more people coming to shows and I've had a feeling that they were from a part of the culture I haven't been able to get to before, younger people. I think on iTunes they've been experimenting with my songs and the digital radio world has been very kind to me.
It seems that people are tired of everyone looking the same on television. And this seems especially true for white people. Even white people are tired of watching the same white people. That's why we've been importing them from Australia.
When I'm watching television or a movie, I like to see stories that are extraordinary. I don't need it be something that is, 'Well this makes more sense to me because I can see this happening to me, or this happened to me.'
I've been inspired by some new people, I can say, from different companies and from just different walks of life, who've said so many beautiful and kind things to me. The very least I can do, is to do the same for others. Kindness begets more kindness. I want to see more of that.
I didn't have nothing handed to me. It's a hard, long road getting to where I'm at. And I think the fans that have been down with me for a long time, they see that. They've been seeing me clawing my way to try to get to the top.
I don't read reviews any more, but I'm told by my publisher who gives me an account of what people have been writing and it's been a very split kind of response.
Since I've been in Manchester, people recognise me all the time in the city. And they have been very kind to me.