Brian Tyree Henry

“Just to say 'woke' is to always be in a constant stream of consciousness where you don't feel like the wool is pulled over your eyes so much. You question your belief that everything should just be presented to you on this beautiful plate. Everything is not as it seems.”

“Every single person you can think of called me Paper Boi.”

“What does it serve any studio to not reflect the lives of people who are giving you money, who are crying out to you, 'Hey, please tell our stories.'”

“I was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which is where J. Cole is from. I went up to Washington, D.C., where my mother moved, to stay with her, and then moved back to North Carolina to finish junior high and high school.”

“Hug your mom. Hug your mom and thank your mom.”

“I've discovered people in my lifetime who are like, 'I always wanted to sing but... ' It's like, 'Well then, did you try?' My thing was always not caring about failure.”

“I was in a musical for a while, and I sing around the house all the time, but I don't ever think of myself as a singer.”

“I was in show choir in high school.”

“It's not without its flaws - it's still the South and the Bible Belt - but Atlanta is one of those cities that's really good at uniting people.”

“I always say I'm not going to work: I'm going to play with my friends.”

“Yale was one of the best moments in my life - also one of the hardest. I learned about community.”

“The rap scene is so unique. Every rapper has to bring their own thing.”

“This is the city that kind of formulated who I am. And, not only that, but to be black in Atlanta is one of the greatest things because you can go anywhere and feel familiar with anyone who's right next to you, from Bankhead to Buckhead.”

“There's no redemption in being robbed. Yeah, maybe you can replace that thing, but it will never be the way it was when you got it the first time. It'll never have the same weight and preciousness again.”

“Aja Naomi is one of my good friends.”

“After my mother and father separated when I was 5, my mother moved to Washington, D.C., and my father remained in North Carolina. Later, I moved to New York and would often drive down to D.C. to see her. We'd ride around together talking and listening to music.”

“At Morehouse, I found myself and my voice, and I didn't want to lose that at Yale.”

“If you are conscious and really want change in this world, and you don't vote, then what was all the fighting for? All the things our parents and our parents' parents fought for?”

“'Atlanta' is really trying to put that out there: these are just the lives of these people in this city, and this city is its own breathing, living thing, too. So how do you navigate through life, especially with dreams and aspirations in a world that tells you that you don't deserve to have them.”

“TV can be a thread between all of us, and it can be a powerful tool to examine life and love and what we all have in common as humans.”