TERRENCE HOWARD

I am an engineer, but what I find important and necessary is that you just learn things as you go along.

And right now I may just be living inside the heart of the body, and I one day hope to move to the brain.

The difference with Cleveland is that the racial tension was not a casual taste of it. It was outlandish.

The only thing that really matters in the initial part of my career, the worst mistake I've ever made was try to do things to please the audience thinking how the audience is going to respond if I do this.

Every little job becomes a dream, and you don't recall it anymore, and maybe you might have a deja vu moment, but it's like something you dreamed earlier.

My life's experiences, I've always had, my uncle used to call it antenna. I know what's going to happen oftentimes before it happened when it's involving me.

I don't have any love for this business or the game or for acting. This is my day job.

Every artist has to grow, and has to challenge themselves with a new form of expression.

I like to watch mankind in its futile attempt to understand the unknown, when they don't even understand that which they know.

The purpose of my life is being a father to my kids and being a husband to my wife.

Sometimes the only way to make palatable that which is appalling and apprehensive is to season it with some humor.

As a child our dreams got scattered all about and all our future prospects got scattered to so many places, and we spend our lives trying to find the little pieces that make up our lives and make up the dreams that we had as a child that got blown away in the windstorm.

Every role you play is literally - and I've said this before - every single role that you play, the only way you can connect to that character is because that was a piece of you that was scattered around that yard, almost like we got caught up in some whirlwind.

I've always had a natural fear of the police, or abuse of their power.

You just drop a character like this that and the other and it's done.

I can't tell you if one day I'll be standing up there with an Oscar or directing, but I am going to be the best human being I possibly can.

Don't just view me as an actor.

All the things we have to remember, and I've mentioned this before, is that we're all artists.

We call the Creator father, because we rely upon Him to protect us, guide us, feed us, keep us warm, to discipline us and all those things. I try to take my cue from the Creator, with regard to my children.

In every person we meet there's this little piece of God in them and that's who you talk to. And that's the only person that you allow to talk to you. When something else is speaking, you walk away from that. If it's not good, if it's not love, you walk away from it.

When you hear buzz around the beehive, you know they're making honey in there.

No, most of the decisions that I make with regard to taking roles, I just look for something that's challenging, something that I think I can accomplish, you know.

I ad lib. I've gotta bring my own into it.

And I'm very surprised that all this stuff actually worked out to where I could have a career in film, gain the benefit of my education, and be thankful that I was able to break into my craft as an actor.

And when I stopped doing that and started thinking about what feels natural and what feels right to me and started pleasing myself, then it became good.