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" I kept getting offered all this young adult stuff. I don't want to keep telling teen coming-of-age stories! "

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" Our country is pathologically violent. "

" In some communities it is - like, for me, coming out with my parents, they were not accepting; they were not understanding. So it depends. For kids in New York and L.A., maybe it's different, but for kids in Iowa, for kids in Tennessee, it's still something that's not really talked about. "

" I like 'Paris is Burning' by Jennie Livington. "

" We have to create a range, and we have to let there be possibilities. And basically, by showing there are different types of people, you write down the monolith. You stop having to represent for all black people when you allow there to be different types represented. "

" When you choose the hard things, it takes longer than you think to get it done, and if you choose the hard thing and have a very particular way you want to do them and are uncompromising in that, then sometimes it takes even longer. "

" I'm not a writer that writes every day. I just kind of have ideas. I jot them down when I have them, and when I have enough, I just start. And for me, I start more around noon, and I'm all about feeling. Once there's a theme, I can't not write. "

" Filmmaking was the way I could write characters and not have to give them up to anybody. "

" In an industry that's uncertain and when you're in a lot of situations that are anxiety-causing, to have someone there who has your back unconditionally and cares for you and the material and would give anything to make sure everything is OK, makes you feel so much better. It gives you a sense of security as an artist. "

" As long as you tell the best story possible, you can trust that people will be able to connect to it. "

" You can't be limited by your own experience. "

" When I first came to New York, I was surprised by all these out teenagers who were openly on the street being who they were. That intrigued me because I was 27 and still struggling with being myself. "

" You don't have to make your life look like anybody else says it should look. "

" I was going to study business administration at Florida A&M, at the height of Reaganomics. "

" My ultimate dream was just to be an auteur. "

" Creatively, I just like interesting characters. So straight, gay, or whatever - like, whatever, wherever the characters are coming from or their lifestyle. "

" The best thing in the world is to put two characters who hate each other side by side. Or put two people who love each other far away, so they have to reach for each other with their looks. "

" I'm interested in characters and relationships. "

" It's okay to be yourself and to love and accept yourself however you are. "

" I had originally written 'Pariah' as a feature, and we shot the first act as a short film, and then we used the short as a marketing tool to fundraise for the feature. "

" For 'Pariah,' people were surprised Kim Wayans was there, but comedians have a dark streak; they're comedians for a reason. "

" I've been around many different lives, many different voices. It was amazing material for a writer. "

" With 'Pariah,' at the time, I had just come out. I had a coming out experience, and I was writing about it, transposing my experience as an adult: What would it have been like if I had been a teenager in Brooklyn? The funny thing was people thought I was from Brooklyn. I had to be like, 'No, I'm from Nashville.' "

" My dad was a cop, you know, and I grew up three houses down from people who used Confederate flags as curtains. "

" I thought that marketing was a way to be creative in business but quickly learned all creative stuff happens at the ad agency. "

" I'm interested in telling stories about characters that are interesting and who are challenging in some way, one that will make you think about them afterwards. "

" I was always going to direct. I wasn't going to hand my characters over to anyone else. "

" Art makes you see people as individual, unique human beings. Art, in that way, allows us to see each other in particulate, as opposed to in aggregate. "

" For me, like, obviously, I want to see myself onscreen. "

" Having to stake out your identity and have people question whether or not you're being yourself was a tension that I could relate to. "

" For each character, I try to understand what is driving them. "