Jussie Smollett quotes:

I have Jewish friends. I have Middle Eastern friends. I have Spanish and Italian and British and Scottish and German friends and Austrian friends, and guess what? They all deal with homophobia. It's an earthling epidemic; it's not isolated in the black community.

There are projects I've done, such as 'Queen,' where I played Halle Berry and Danny Glover's son, where I'm so extremely proud of the work that I did that I will sit down and watch that any time.

My family is from Elmhurst, Queens, 54th Avenue, but I was born in Northern California.

I don't throw around the word 'brother' because I'm so, so close to my real-life brothers and my real-life sisters, and being a brother is so important to me.

I feel the weight of just telling the truth. There really is no weight to telling the truth. It's a little scary sometimes, but if you tell the truth, you don't have to be looking over your shoulder.

I would love to do a song with Janet Jackson. Janet was, is, forever will be, the ultimate. She's the ultimate dream girl for every guy - and for every girl.

I went into a Whole Foods to buy chewable vitamin C and got tackled by, like, 15 girls who watch 'Empire.'

If you change because of fame, that's not the right thing. But if you change because of growth, that's normal... The whole fame thing hasn't hit me. And I hope it kind of doesn't.

It's been a blessing to work under Team Timbaland.

When a television show like 'Scandal' becomes the biggest show in recent history, suddenly advertisers and networks want to jump on that. And what it's showing is that people want to see diversity.

There's not one human being on the planet earth who has never felt, at some point, unaccepted. At some point in our lives, we feel like we're not good enough, but we have to step back and realize that we are.

Some of the greatest films and television have only been seen by the people that make them. And some of the greatest music is only heard by the people who make it.

I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty. I've done it all. I've worked as a clown, literally, at children's parties.

There really is no weight to telling the truth. It's a little scary sometimes, but if you tell the truth, you don't have to be looking over your shoulder.

You work hard and you pray, and you do something where you know the energy around the project is right, but you never really know if it's going to hit and resonate with audiences.

Me releasing my music, if anything, is an opportunity to show the world my stories and tell the world my stories.