Top 50 Brian Tyree Henry Quotes

Atlanta, in itself, is its own living, breathing thing.

I love the element of surprise, throwing people off of what they think they know about what I can do and who I am. I just want to keep doing that.

Perceptions really do define what our realities are. What we’re hoping to do with ‘Atlanta’ is to really shatter that. To shatter it completely wide open. To go from the furthest lane of absurdity to the furthest lane of reality and make them blend.

I think that’s the best thing about being black is that we find a way to make our own communities and always give room for people to pull up to our tables. We always provide a way for other people from different walks of life to come into the communities that we have built because we’re so used to being excluded.

The most important thing I feel in the acting profession is to create a community that reflects you back to you.

I stay in contact with my castmates from ‘Atlanta’ almost every day.

The projects that I’ve been fortunate enough to do are all projects where I followed my heart. I didn’t follow the money or the names. It’s all about reflecting my life and my art.

What does it serve any studio to not reflect the lives of people who are giving you money, who are crying out to you, ‘Hey, please tell our stories.’

I have been the hugest HBO fan since I was 3, watching programming that I had no business watching as a child.

There’s something about being onstage, man. No matter what age I am or where I’m going, theater will constantly be the thing that accepts me and embraces me.

When I was three years old, one of the first albums I ever heard was Michael Jackson’s ‘Off the Wall.’

Hug your mom. Hug your mom and thank your mom.

The great thing about James Baldwin and his writing is that it’s still fresh every time you pick it up. That’s also the sad thing about his writing sometimes, too.

I just remember watching my first theater class, and I was like, ‘Oh I can get up there,’ like I could absolutely get up and do this every day and learn about it.

I hope Paper Boi runs for president. I hope he does. Governor, mayor, senator, I hope he does it all. You better believe it.

I usually get approached by older white ladies of a certain class, with their pearls and, you know, their Talbots on and everything, and they’re like, ‘We just have to say, we know we’re not your demographic, but we love Paper Boi; we really love this show, and we love what you’re doing.’ It’s totally cool.

I learned everything I know about music from my parents and my sisters.

I am the product of those who believed in me.

Theater’s literally where I started.

You can put Trump in the White House, but you need to prepare for a revolt because I’m going nuts.

I’ve discovered people in my lifetime who are like, ‘I always wanted to sing but… ‘ It’s like, ‘Well then, did you try?’ My thing was always not caring about failure.

I never really thought about what kind of career I wanted to map out for myself. I just wanted to do work that spoke to my heart. ‘Atlanta’ definitely did that.

In my household growing up in Fayetteville, N.C., music was the great communicator between my parents and me.

I say this all the time: All I know is I know nothing at all.

I was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which is where J. Cole is from. I went up to Washington, D.C., where my mother moved, to stay with her, and then moved back to North Carolina to finish junior high and high school.

Acting, for me, was kind of a way of survival, honestly. I’m the baby boy out of four different sisters, and I grew up in a house with so many different personalities that acting was the only way to not go to therapy.

I was in show choir in high school.

I always say I’m not going to work: I’m going to play with my friends.

People like to use the word ‘naivete’ as a negative, but not for me.

Yale was one of the best moments in my life – also one of the hardest. I learned about community.

Sometimes, you need someone to believe in you when you don’t believe in yourself.

After my mother and father separated when I was 5, my mother moved to Washington, D.C., and my father remained in North Carolina. Later, I moved to New York and would often drive down to D.C. to see her. We’d ride around together talking and listening to music.

I was working with the likes of Steve McQueen, Matthew McConaughey, Viola Davis, just running the gamut.

I dare somebody to go to Atlanta and not have a good time.

Every single person you can think of called me Paper Boi.

If you are conscious and really want change in this world, and you don’t vote, then what was all the fighting for? All the things our parents and our parents’ parents fought for?

My sisters were teenagers when I was born, so the last thing they wanted was a little nappy-headed boy running around. I would imitate them or copy things off TV.

Being in a club – clubs are, like, not my favorite thing.

Really trying to find the people who really ride for you and are down for you, that’s hard.

I don’t think I’m going to be back on ‘This Is Us.’ I think that Uncle Ricky had his moment; he did what he had to do.

At Morehouse, I found myself and my voice, and I didn’t want to lose that at Yale.

This is the city that kind of formulated who I am. And, not only that, but to be black in Atlanta is one of the greatest things because you can go anywhere and feel familiar with anyone who’s right next to you, from Bankhead to Buckhead.

My school had the dopest arts program – the dopest show choir, the dopest marching band. I couldn’t sing or play an instrument a lick, but I was just going to fake it till I make it.

Aja Naomi is one of my good friends.

The rap scene is so unique. Every rapper has to bring their own thing.

My father had one of the biggest vinyl collections I’ve ever seen.

I’m a big guy: I look like a linebacker, you know? But no one cares, really, that I’m educated. I have a copy of ‘Fire Next Time’ by James Baldwin in my bag. I have an Ibsen play in there, too. I have to walk through this world with that duality all the time, that I live in two different worlds.

I’m a huge pin collector.

I’m very grateful, first of all, for my friends and my family because they keep me grounded, and they make sure I’m taking care of myself and that I’m keeping my sanity about me.

It’s really humbling and gratifying to see that people are finally realizing that we are talented and we have things to say and that our stories are just like your stories. There’s no reason that anybody from Wisconsin or Turkey can’t relate to ‘Atlanta.’