When you're in prison, the progress of the outside world doesn't necessarily translate inside prison walls. You don't have any rights; it just doesn't progress along the same timeline.

The way it works at Julliard is that you just perform with people who are in your own class.

There are many more serial killers living outside the prison walls than inside.

There was this girl who went to my school, and she did a Nikki Giovanni poem, 'Ego Tripping,' and it was just different from everyone else's. It wasn't flat recitation. It had an energy and a life to it. And it made me sit up in my seat, and my eyes got wide, and I really felt inside myself, 'She's making me feel things. I want to do that.'

I didn't do 'Orange' because I knew it was good. I wanted to do this because it feels good. And I just knew that was the place I needed, wanted to be.

You have people who are so passionate and touched by my work, which is so humbling. But other times, it's a little overwhelming. If I'm just trying to go to the bodega and get some coconut water, I have to put on a hat and some glasses - those kind of things.