Quotes from Leslie Odom, Jr.

You go see a great production of 'Romeo and Juliet,' where those kids are full of life and love, you hope and forget.

For most of your career, what you're trying to do is to step into other people's shoes.

I grew up in the Canaan Baptist Church.

To get even realer with you for a second, as a black actor, as a performer of color, I don't know how many more roles like Aaron Burr are gonna come along for me.

People are coming to you at their most vulnerable; they're showing you the parts of themselves that they're afraid to show: the parts that they're not so sure about, not so secure in. And so it's a really holy profession I think, teaching. If you do it right, it can change somebody's life.

I've realized along the way that a lot of things that I do as a performer are about waiting for somebody to write something for me or develop something for me, but music, music was the thing that I don't have to wait for anybody's permission to do.

As an artist, I'm very used to waking up and sort of not knowing what my day's going to be and not knowing where my next paycheck is going to come from.

I've been in a long-term relationship, and I'll tell you, it's never boring! People trying to merge their lives together always run into challenges.

I know what feeling broke feels like real well. I know that real well.

Donny Hathaway's 'For All We Know' is the song that I've sung the longest. It is a beautiful song about living in the moment and appreciating this very second. That is the song I did for my 'Rent' audition.

I grew up in Philadelphia.

I haven't had a chance to decorate my dressing room yet, but I have these pictures of myself as a kid that I want to put up because I said, 'I really want to make sure that I take that kid with me on this journey.' I want him to experience this.

What a casting director does is they're a connector.

You must be an artist and a citizen of the world. You must speak to this stuff that's happening. You must do what you can to shine a light on it, help people through it.

All I try to do is put as many colors as I can on the canvas every night.

We don't get to get swept up, because we have to start over every day at 8 o'clock.

I've been fortunate in my life. It hasn't been easy, but there has been a focus on the positive, and it has reverberated. Eventually, the outlook mirrors itself back to you in the friends you have, in the partner that you choose.

If I'm allowed it, I'm really looking forward to a little time on the couch and a little time on a beach in Brazil.

Sometimes I think of creativity or art as this well that we all draw from.

I'm an artist, and I like art that gets people talking, good or bad. Criticism is good, too.

I grew up in Philadelphia in a time where we took it for granted that we were supposed to be young and gifted and black. It was a culture of excellence - and all my friends were more talented than I was.

I studied at Carnegie Mellon. I went there with a bunch of really, really talented kids.

I'm so excited about my new partnership with the talented and motivated team at S-Curve Records!

You hear a song like 'Wait For It,' you hear a song like 'Dear Theodosia' - if you get one of those songs in a musical - one - it's worth dropping everything to sing that one song.