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" The characters I've portrayed may outwardly be quite different from one another, but I've found that they're also intrinsically linked. "
Forest Whitaker
Quite
May
Characters
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" It's abhorrent to me that somebody is just evil, and you can't explain it. "
Forest Whitaker
Evil
Explain
Just
" I think 'The Color of Money' was very instrumental in opening up other opportunities. People started to recognize me as an artist after that film. And then, after I did 'Bird,' it was more solidified. "
Forest Whitaker
Color
Money
Me
" Until film is just as easily accessible as a pen or pencil, then it's not completely an art form. In painting, you can just pick up a piece of chalk, a stick, or whatever. In sculpture, you can get a rock. Writing, you just need a pencil and paper. Film has been a very elitist medium. It costs so much money. "
Forest Whitaker
Pen
Art
Writing
" You have to ask if the country would have been ready for Barack Obama if we hadn't been prepared by Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. If they hadn't already been in positions of enormous power and influence - secretary of state, secretary of defence - you know what I mean? "
Forest Whitaker
Power
Know
Influence
" When I was a kid, the only way I saw movies was from the back seat of my family's car at the drive-in. "
Forest Whitaker
Movies
Back
Car
" I think that cinema and the arts are central in our lives because we grow up and learn about the world through our exposure to stories. Parents use them as a tool to teach their children fundamental truths and values, much as adults can view them to gain exposure to cultures and individuals that they'd never be able to view in their own lives. "
Forest Whitaker
Values
Think
Parents
" I care about people. In the end, I think they feel it. It comes across, regardless of the character I'm portraying. "
Forest Whitaker
Care
Think
People
" I'm an actor. And I guess I've done so many movies I've achieved some high visibility. But a star? I guess I still think of myself as kind of a worker ant. "
Forest Whitaker
Kind
Done
Movies
" In a lot of films, they're showing more complete, developed characters of diverse ethnic backgrounds. The larger concern is to be able to tastefully explore the stereotypes, and still move past them to see the core of people. "
Forest Whitaker
See
People
Stereotypes
" I always stand up for what I believe and what I want to. "
Forest Whitaker
Stand
Stand Up
I Believe
" Stereotypes do exist, but we have to walk through them. "
Forest Whitaker
Stereotypes
Walk
Exist
" I love to play chess. The last time I was playing, I started to really see the board. I don't mean just seeing a few moves ahead - something else. My game started getting better. It's the patterns. The patterns are universal. "
Forest Whitaker
Better
Love
Time
" I go back and forth between indie and studio because I feel like it, not because I feel obligated to do one or the other. "
Forest Whitaker
Other
Like
Go
" I try to support stories that enable us to see the difficulties in our society and the challenges we face, which is why I've also produced documentaries like 'Brick City' and 'Serving Life.' "
Forest Whitaker
Challenges
Society
Support
" I fell through a stage once. I was doing a truly African dance, and all of a sudden, I hit the ground with my foot and went straight through the stage. I guess they didn't have much money, so the floor was kind of rotting. "
Forest Whitaker
Stage
Dance
Doing
" I think the only consistent thing is that I like projects that explore different social themes. 'Our Family Wedding' is a comedy, but it deals with two different cultures coming together. It's also about people letting go. "
Forest Whitaker
Together
Family
People
" I'm fascinated by the capacity to be able to do harm. I struggle every day with the ability of people to do evil. Not just the big things - the petty things that people do in order to make someone feel small, when it's so easy to do, and it hurts so much. "
Forest Whitaker
People
Evil
Easy
" While it's easy for South Sudan to feel distant, the situation is all too real for the South Sudanese mothers choosing which child gets to eat tomorrow. This is a time when we must look outward together and declare that humanity has no borders - no one deserves to suffer like this, especially in a world of such abundance. "
Forest Whitaker
World
Tomorrow
Together
" It's tough when you have to be away. But I'm probably at home more than my dad was because he was working two or three jobs sometimes. "
Forest Whitaker
Home
Three
Two
" If I go to a reunion in east Texas, my mother's side or my father's, one out of ten is a preacher or a teacher. That's just the way it is in my family. "
Forest Whitaker
Texas
Teacher
Mother
" In life, there's a ladder sometimes, and maybe at the top, there's a mirror. You take a step up, then maybe three steps down... just because you don't want to face the decloaking in the mirror. "
Forest Whitaker
Face
Mirror
Life
" My wife is completely different from me: she's good with everyone, whereas I'm good at directed conversation when I have a purpose for it, like now. If everyone's sitting around being social, I'm not great. "
Forest Whitaker
Me
Good
Great
" The first time I ever went out of the country, it was to London. I was with the choir from my college, and we were touring around all these different churches. I loved it so much I tried to find a way to stay there. "
Forest Whitaker
Country
College
Loved
" Good science fiction is always based in contemporary truths. "
Forest Whitaker
Science Fiction
Always
Good
" It's a contract of connection to be in the same space and watch and listen to stories and be caught in them. When you're in a theater, your brain expands because somebody in the theater may do something or respond to something that you wouldn't have. "
Forest Whitaker
Space
Connection
Brain
" Ultimately, all human beings fulfill their patterns. We're set in a certain archetype, and we fulfill that destiny. "
Forest Whitaker
Destiny
Patterns
Human
" I submerged myself in all the information that I could find about Idi Amin. I mean, before I left Los Angeles, I was studying Kiswahili. I was working on the dialect. I was studying every documentary and tape of him that I could find - not just visual, but also audiocassettes, even in other languages when he was speaking in other dialects. "
Forest Whitaker
Studying
Myself
Information
" Our leaders must hear us speaking on behalf of our brothers and sisters in South Sudan. If the moral duty to save lives and work toward peace is not compelling enough to drive decision-makers, we must remind them that we care and will hold them accountable. "
Forest Whitaker
Work
Care
Moral
" It rests in the hands of the common person as well as those with the power to shape humanity's course toward a world where every child, woman and man's most basic needs are met. "
Forest Whitaker
Hands
Child
Man
" Directing is more comfortable for me because, as an actor, there's always something inherently false. Because I'm not that person. "
Forest Whitaker
Actor
Always
Person