Nate Parker

“When I was young, to have a big nose, big lips or dark skin was the worst. You were the wretched. That was something I not only felt, but I participated in.”

“I, for one, believe that partisanship should have nothing to do with the actions of Christ. You're either Christlike, or you're not.”

“You don't choose who you sit next to in a theater. You sit in a theater, and there's an energy that happens.”

“Leadership is one of the things I really strive to excel in in my life.”

“I think patriotism is all about wanting to see America better, wanting to see those are oppressed do better and get treated better.”

“I immediately felt the need, back when I was a managing tech engineer, to attach myself to Nat Turner. And to research him and learn about him and try to find ways into his life that I could apply to my life.”

“The crazy thing is a lot of people - a lot of men, if I'm just speaking for myself - don't really start thinking about the effect of hyper-masculinity and false definitions of what it means to be a man until you get married or until you have kids. Because then, all of sudden, you have something to protect.”

“I'm a big Hall and Oates fan.”

“I just feel like if I really believe what Dr. King said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,' then I should be compelled to use my God-given platform to effect change.”

“So if I'm 36, and I have my 19-year-old self, I'm pulling him to the side and saying, 'Listen bruh, throwing on your Timbs and your fitted hat and strolling campus trying to get a girl to say yes, or going to the club hoping you bring a girl home, that's not the way to go about healthy relationships. You need to step back.'”

“We all serve a purpose. My purpose isn't to be rejected. My purpose isn't to think small or to be introverted. This door closed is literally pushing me to the next door.”

“I'm a perfectionist to a fault.”

“I think, at some point, we have to be followers of Christ - not followers of White Christ, or any other color Christ, for that matter.”

“The black community is my community - the LGBT community, too, and the female community. That is my community. That's me; it's who I am.”

“Sadly, black people disassociate ourselves from the things which make us who we are, identifying them as lesser, or inferior. It's a form of self hate. So, with reckless abandon, we strive to be like the majority.”

“We have a tendency to sugar coat the Civil Rights movement by showing arm in arm and everyone singing 'Kumbaya'. We don't really always show the resistance from the government, the resistance from the status quo, from the majority to silence the movement.”

“Women have been such an important part of my life. I try, every day, to be a better father to my daughters and a better husband.”

“I think chemistry and great acting go hand-in-hand.”

“All I can do is seek the information that'll make me stronger, that'll help me overcome my toxic masculinity, my male privilege, because that's something you never think about. You don't think about other people.”

“So often, when we don't have people that can be representative or symbolic of leadership and of faith, of purpose, in that absence we become bitter and resentful.”