"Not only is this work a masterpiece, but it's also adapted into a film that is also separately a masterpiece. I don't think it's necessary to do a straight telling of the story. "
"Just serve the art, serve the music as best as you can, as honestly as you can, as diligently and thoughtfully and thoroughly as possible, and let the rest take care of itself."
"I don't think it's going to be better than John Coltrane, frankly. My generation, we're not going to quite get to what that is. So what we have to do is figure out things to add to it, to make something a little different."
"There is not an inherent gorgeousness to classical music itself. We find it gorgeous because we find ourselves represented in it. We have not been successful at making it relevant for everybody."
"Liza used to tell me any time that you can work and perform on your birthday, it’s kind of the best thing to do because it is the birthday wish come true. "
"Once you get a feel for the audience after two or three songs, you kind of take them on this music journey and you're a deejay of your own music."
"The tragedy in this movie is that at the heart of it is this unrequited love story, which is a very, almost adolescent kind of pain. But that pain is magnified by the pain of the catastrophe in the background."
"I just felt that I became much more in touch with the kind of music that I wanted to play, the kind of playing I want to do and the kinds of projects that I find really engaging."
"Am I just here because I'm Black or am I here because I'm talented? I tend to be the only black person in the room. I see that changing."
"Yes, you can be an actor and you don't have to play a guy that works at a Chinese laundry. You can be a prince, you can be a cowboy, you can be a rich boy from Upper Class England."