Quotes from Sterling K. Brown

Different roles call for different aspects or different faces of Sterling to emerge.

Sarah Paulson doesn't lie. Like, in life. But she doesn't lie onscreen, and you can't take your eyes off somebody who always tells the truth. She's the most honest person I've ever met.

There is a reason that many African Americans have a healthy mistrust for law enforcement. We don't always feel protected or served by that particular institution.

M. Night Shyamalan can draw quite a few people to quite a few things, and having the opportunity to work with him is very cool.

We all have our prejudices, and we may or may not be aware of them. Sometimes people walk by me and give me a wider berth. It happens. I wear hoodies all the time because my head gets cold. Something innocuous can be misunderstood.

I've always told my wife, 'Anytime I have an opportunity to be on something that I would watch even if I wasn't on it, that's when I get really, really giddy.'

In the gym, people's enthusiasm tends to get the best of them. They realize this is their opportunity to say hello or that they love my work... It doesn't matter how profusely you're sweating.

I think I'll never stop doing theater because it's a more physical and athletic activity. You can't pull any punches; there are no short cuts, and you have to be physically present and committed. I love the excitement and the response of being in front of a live audience.

With any character you portray, you can never play the end in the beginning. You have to pursue and attack your intention as if they're going to be successful.

I don't want to try to fool people into thinking that I'm something that I'm not.

The most fundamental important thing for me as an actor is maintaining a sense of play. It's so important.

I go to Stanford, and I'm an economics major, not thinking I'm going to do anything with acting. A professor came to the dorm where I lived looking for people to audition for an August Wilson play, 'Joe Turner's Come And Gone.' I gave it a shot, got one of the lead roles in the play.

The beauty of theater is that you get to live the character from beginning to end without stopping. The natural momentum of the story propels you through in such a way that feels organic.

If you haven't done shows that are on everyone's radar, then you're something out of nowhere.

It's one thing to entertain, to educate, but to edify, to lift people up, that's - to God be the glory.

It would be really cool to have my dad here to witness this, to see his grandchildren, to see this woman that I chose to share my life with, to just come walk on set and be like, 'Ah, this is how you make TV shows and movies.'

On Twitter, there'll be fans of 'Army Wives' and people who say, 'I've been following you since 'Supernatural,' I loved you on 'Person of Interest,'' and it's really cool to get that love. To them, I'm not just an overnight success.

My mom, who is a very strong Christian woman, will often ask me how some of the characters I play glorify God. Her meaning is that she feels as if every character should be a good Christian character, which is not necessarily my interpretation.

I think the therapeutic part of acting is allowing myself to step into another human being's shoes. It allows me the ability to release judgment, if I had any judgment to begin with. It's an opportunity to understand rather than to stand outside and point fingers.

When I finally got the chance to do 'The People v. O.J. Simpson,' my peers embraced me with the same attitude. They didn't make me feel small or insignificant. They treated me as a peer. It was a wonderful experience.

Busy is good, you know. Busy is better than bored, and there's more recognition. Like, I try to feign the anonymity which I had before 'O.J.'

There's something frightening that comes with freedom. And there was something very frightening for a lot of slaves once they were free and were going through Reconstruction. It was like, what do you do now? There was nothing set up.

I didn't grow up feeling very handsome.

At the highest level of your craft, you don't have to play games or make people feel small; you can just embrace.