Jesse Williams

“There's so much material out there that's unnecessarily racist. It takes a shot at what is 'urban' or demonstrates blackness with some sassy, neck-jiving character that's not even relevant to the plot. I see it time and time again, and it doesn't move the story forward. It just kind of cryogenically freezes us in this old racial paradigm.”

“We should all have the opportunity to at least get a basic education and feel that you are worthy of something in life.”

“You have to be up-front from the very beginning about what your expectations of the other person are, and you can't make any promises you don't intend to keep.”

“I'm kind of in a middle space, being marketed as a biracial actor. Roles are written either stereotypically black, or they're written 'normal,' which is just code for white.”

“The interesting thing about white power and the desperate white knuckling grip on this thing call whiteness, which is a myth in itself, is that black folks... we're not asking you to invent new laws for us. We're asking you to include us in the laws that are already on the books.”

“It was very important to me to be with a woman who is better than me at some things. You want someone who brings new, interesting things into your life.”

“I grew up in a really horrible school system, but my parents did not let that define how we function. They gave me more work at home from them than I ever got from school. To learn about the history of myself and my people, and that armors me.”

“Words are only as good as the response to those words.”

“I download, like, forty songs a day, I'm a big music collector and a big record collector.”

“We as men, in particular black men, are constantly supported, nurtured, forgiven, apologized for, led, followed and coddled by black women, and they get very little in return.”

“The truth we are teaching is that every contribution in the history of the planet came from blonde people. It's not true, and it's destructive, and people are getting killed long term as a result. People don't believe that we deserve it.”

“I thought that if acting didn't work out, I'd have done law school or medical school: probably law to be honest.”

“That's why the role that I have on 'Grey's Anatomy' is important to me, because it's a human being. He doesn't have to wear race on his sleeve; he doesn't even have to talk about it. We just lead by our actions.”

“I'm always trying to find the next comedian that just gives me something a little funny to combine with all of the depressing news that I'm processing.”

“Blackness is not a monolith. We are not homogenous people; we are not all the same.”

“I always find that really interesting, you know, when I get to see characters that I love in TV and film and theater around their family.”

“I like to take credit for the work that I have done.”

“Storytelling is based on the word, being an honorable person of integrity is based on your word.”

“I don't check for Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly or any of these demons on the Right. They don't wake me up in the morning. I don't care about them, and they certainly don't drive the conversations I'm thinking about, but they do have an audience, and they do lie all day, every day about disenfranchised people.”

“I'm very grateful and fully aware that 90 percent of actors are not working. Going from public school teacher to a show like 'Grey's Anatomy', I love what I do.”