But my dad also was a remarkable man, a good person, a principled individual, a man of integrity.

I wanted to explore the values that are at work, underpinning my life.

So much of life, it seems, is determined by pure randomness.

So it’s been kind of a long road, but it was a good journey altogether.

History passes the final judgment.

I wanted to look at them because I feel, internally, that I am an ordinary person who has had an extraordinary life.

Accept that environment compromises values far more than values do their number on environment.

So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.

I never had an occasion to question color, therefore, I only saw myself as what I was… a human being.

I’ll always be chasing you… Glory.

[Smith said he, too, is pleased by the recognition of African-American actors. He noted that Poitier was the last man to win a best actor award] and that was 28 years ago. … Lilies of...

The journey has been incredible from its beginning.

I was not the kind of a principal player that was so in demand that eight or 10 or 12 scripts came per month.

In my case, the body of work stands for itself… I think my work has been representative of me as a man.

We all suffer from the preoccupation that there exists… in the loved one, perfection.

The next morning we came into the port at Miami. I saw the buildings. For me they were tall, tall buildings; there was nothing like them in Nassau.

I was the only Black person on the set. It was unusual for me to be in a circumstance in which every move I made was tantamount to representation of 18 million people.

Jackie Robinson is a true legend.

If you apply reason and logic to this career of mine, you’re not going to get very far. You simply won’t. The journey has been incredible from its beginning. So much of life, it seems...

There is not racial or ethnic domination of hopelessness. It’s everywhere.

I’ll always be chasing you, … Glory.

Mine was an easy ride compared to Jackie Robinson’s.

Southern Gentleman.

To be compared to Jackie Robinson is an enormous compliment, but I don’t think it’s necessarily deserved.

A good deed here, a good deed there, a good thought here, a good comment there, all added up to my career in one way or another.

My autobiography was simply the story of my life.

My mother is a Bahamian. My father is a Bahamian, as am I, … And all that I am, I’ve received from them and a country that has today given me the opportunities, and to...

To simply wake up every morning a better person than when I went to bed.

I decided in my life that I would do nothing that did not reflect positively on my father’s life.

I am the me I choose to be.

My father was a poor man, very poor in a British colonial possession where class and race were very important.

Almost all the job opportunities were reflective of the stereotypical perception of blacks that had infected the whole consciousness of the country.

I had chosen to use my work as a reflection of my values.

Child psychologists have demonstrated that our minds are actually constructed by these thousands of tiny interactions during the first few years of life. We aren’t just what we’re taught. It’s what we experience during those...

Since I couldn’t actuate the things that I wanted to do, the only weapon I had was to say no.

As a man, I’ve been representative of the values I hold dear. And the values I hold dear are carryovers from the lives of my parents.

I had learned something of Miami from people who had visited there, so I knew what to expect.

A person doesn’t have to change who he is to become better.

So I had to be careful. I recognized the responsibility that, whether I liked it or not, I had to accept whatever the obligation was. That was to behave in a manner, to carry myself...

But I always had the ability to say no. That’s how I called my own shots.

I learned quite quickly that there were places I couldn’t go, that I would be questioned if I wandered into various neighborhoods.

Okay listen, you think I’m so inconsequential? Then try this on for size. All those who see unworthiness when they look at me and are given thereby to denying me value – to you I...

So I’m OK with myself, with history, my work, who I am and who I was.