Quotes from Andre Holland

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Shakespeare is definitely my first love.

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 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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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'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.

[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!

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