Michael K. Williams Quotations

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

The arts saved my life.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Cajun culture is dying.

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

I came out the womb dancing.

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.

I know plenty of adults who act like teenagers.

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

All my characters have playlists.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

I got picked on a lot as a kid.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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