No matter where you came from, you can be inspired.

'Straight Outta Compton' is my first biopic, my first period piece, and I got a chance to kind of get out there like some of my idols, you know, like Scorsese, Spielberg, Spike Lee, the guys who came before me. You know, I'm feeling good about it.

Creativity is a mansion. If you're empty in one room, all you have to do is go out into the hallway and enter another room that's full.

I remember where I was when I first heard 'Boyz N The Hood' - 126th Street and Normandy, South Central, Los Angeles. I remember that I was on my porch. What they described in that song was so vivid and so clear to me because it was the kind of life I was used to witnessing and partly experiencing in my neighborhood.

I knew that in Hollywood they tend to pigeonhole talent, and when you experience a little success in one genre, their instinct is to keep you in that box.

You have to enjoy yourself when you go to the movies. People don't want to spend their hard earned money to simply go see a history lesson.