Michael K. Williams quotes:

Revenge is not a positive state of mind or energy to indulge your self in.

I grew up in East Flatbush in Brooklyn which was an intense neighbourhood filled with different West Indian cultures.

God has blessed me. I've been given a lot. I'm at peace with myself. It's time to give back.

Doing something that warrants the attention of the President of the United States is super cool.

Our criminal justice system has swallowed up too many people I love.

I'm totally comfortable today with the success that Omar and 'The Wire' have brought me - living with that character, being recognized and remembered for that character.

Our criminal justice system has swallowed up too many people I love. I am proud to join the ACLU in the fight to make mass incarceration a thing of the past.

I do happen to love Honey Nut Cheerios. I don't know if I want to walk down to the store in my pajamas for them. But I do love them.

My only goal is to stay focused on my craft and make sure my life is as sharp as it can be to attack any character that is given to me.

Having been through the muck and mire, I've had my own brush with bad choices.

I am a dark-skinned, nappy-headed, scar-faced dude from the streets of Brooklyn. I can't hide from being who I am. It's all over my face.

My dream role is to portray someone like James Baldwin. I've always been a fan of his writing, and I feel like he's one of our unsung heroes. He's been pretty much forgotten, and I think he needs to be recognized. He had to go all the way to Europe to find recognition and acceptance, and I'd just like to bring him to the forefront.

I don't believe in typecasting. Just because all my characters may come from the other side of the tracks doesn't mean they are all the same. You don't stereotype people and generalize people, everyone's different.

People say they love the characters I've chosen in my career. But I didn't choose anything. I just happened to be working and these were offered to me.

People misconstrue when I say I was a dancer. I was not classically trained. I was a street dancer, and I got to do what I did in the nightclubs of New York City.

You know, my childhood was pretty colorful; I like to use the word 'turbulent.'

Ending a television character that you've been, especially someone like Omar Little, it hurts. For me, it's a huge thing. You feel like a part of you is gone.

I don't dabble in politics too much. I'm really ignorant to the world of politics. I'm not that smart, I'm not that cunning, it's just too much smoke and mirrors for me. I just don't want to play that game.

The arts saved my life.

I haven't had a problem with being typecast, but if I was only getting one type of role, I wouldn't mind. What I'm worried about is not working.

Cajun culture is dying.

I use my job to engage empathy and compassion for people society might stereotype or ostricise.

I absolutely miss dancing. Don't want to do it for a living, I'm getting old, I can't move like I used to. If I had the opportunity to do something on Broadway or a musical, I would jump at the opportunity.

I am the epitome of the underdog. By societies standards I should have been dead a long time ago, and I was nobody's gangster, I wasn't a thug, I wasn't selling drugs on the corner - I was scared of that.

My main goal, starting out as a young actor, was to carry the reins that Pac left off and to reach the depths as an actor that I know he would have reached had he still been here with us.

The streets would have chewed me up and spit me out and I knew that, but I found my own ways and different knacks for getting in trouble and being reckless with my life. And I've overcome a lot of personal demons and to be alive is really my greatest achievement.

As we say in the hood, I'm a stoop kid.

All my characters have playlists.

CHILDHOOD IS THAT STATE WHICH ENDS THE MOMENT A PUDDLE IS FIRST VIEWED AS AN OBSTACLE INSTEAD OF AN OPPORTUNITY

For me, my past characters been hard, the way they died, being murdered, the sadness that goes around, the death. It's a very hard thing to do.

I came out the womb dancing.

I come to work on time. I focus on my job. I bust my scenes out and everything else kind of happens from there.

I don't consider myself a person of fashion because it's too sophisticated. My thing is I look at style like swagger. I like things that pull me, that I gravitate to.

I got picked on a lot as a kid.

I have a very healthy appetite for good writing and good characters. Having weak writing is my biggest fear.

I know nothing of what it is to be a gangster.

I know plenty of adults who act like teenagers.

If you've ever felt oppressed on any level, there's something from 'The Wire' that you can take and identify with.

I'm good with all my roles, I've never had a bad role.

I'm looking for diversity, all my characters may or may not be on the wrong side of the tracks. It doesn't mean that they're all the same.

I'm more liable to hurt myself than someone else.

It's weird, sometimes I still see myself as just starting out. I tend to forget how much I've been doing, but in the beginning it is about the hustle, being out there and doing the work. Nothing is going to come to you, you have to get out there and do the work, and I've been doing that. But sometimes it's good to take a break and let these things air out. Reflect and take it in.

Music is always a part of my characters' make-up.

Music's been part of my entire life. It's in my DNA.

My childhood was pretty colorful; I like to use the word turbulent. But it was a great time to grow up, the '70s and '80s in Brooklyn, East Flatbush. It was culturally diverse: You had Italian culture, American culture, the Caribbean West Indian culture, the Hasidic Jewish culture. Everything was kind of like right there in your face. A lot of violence, you know, especially toward the '80s the neighborhood got really violent, but it made me who I am, it made me strong.

My goal as an actor, as an up-and-coming actor in this business is to stay consistent with the work and if you do good work, and stay focused on the work, writers and directors will pay attention.

My job is to bring to life the character, not to put the words on the paper.

No one wakes up one day and decides they want to become a drug dealer or they want to be a stick-up kid. Those decisions are made after a series of events have happened in one's life.

The most successful people reach the top not because they are free of limitations, but because they act in spite of their limitations

The Wire' is very realistic and based on real events.

Writers will see your work and want to try you in different things but I think you have to stay true to your vehicle. We all have a vehicle. Whether it's a thug, or a school child or the babyface or the sex siren or the video vin, whatever it is ride that until the wheels fall off and eventually, if you build your foundation then you can branch off.

You have to put your character to rest after x amount of years.

You know, my childhood was pretty colorful; I like to use the word 'turbulent.

You know, Tupac is very near and dear to my heart. He started my career as an actor.

My dancing came about as a way to be cool, actually. I knew early on that I was not a street kid. I didn't have the moxie, what it took to run the streets with the dudes that I grew up wanting to emulate. But I had a huge need to be accepted, so I found that I could be the party king. I did drugs really well, and I partied really well.