Colman Domingo Quotes

What I find curious is that I ever became a writer at all. I grew up in the South Bronx, the land of poverty and petty hoodlums.

Sometimes you almost have to laugh to keep from crying to deal with the pain associated with the 'hood.

No matter where you from, there's ghettos all over the place.

I was in the heart and soul of Baltimore. I definitely felt a connection to the people. They're really hard-working people that want to have a better life. And I saw the struggle that exists there.

Hip-hop is a voice for voiceless poor people.

People are used to music that justifies street culture but something that's not touched on is why these kids act the way they act, live the way they live.

If all I ever wrote about was inner city freaks, I think it would be dishonest.

As writers, we don't just need to write about poverty or war or the immigrant experience.

I am writing about people who are alive in the city of New York during mid-20th-century America. And these people are like a character in a play or they are figures in a short story or a novel.

I know two L.A.s. Half my life was around the house my folks had for 46 years at 3rd and Norton. The other half was in Boyle Heights on the Eastside, working with gang members.

My life growing up was a twisted Bronx version of 'The Color Purple.' It had a much different soundtrack and no trees, but that desperation was the same.

I'm from Long Beach - not the best area in the world - and I had a lot of ghetto friends growing up.

I've always written about social concerns. My first book was about Spanish Harlem.

Being from Oakland, you see a lot of thing. You see friends turn on friends all the time. You see family turn on family.

I've been in many of them and to some extent I would have to say this; if you've seen one city slum you've seen them all.

I grew up on 135th Street. I grew up on the poor side of New York. I grew up in Harlem.

If you've seen one city slum you've seen them all.

I do remember the numbers runners, I do remember the poverty and bread lines. Harlem stays with you forever.

Living and working in the centre of a city, one cannot but be affected by the sight of the homeless on the streets. They are almost an expected feature of life in a big city, and it is tempting to think there is little or nothing that can, or even should, be done about it. This is not so.

The things I rap about are 100 percent real. But at the same time, I don't rap about those things to tear my city down. I give you the reality of what it is and what I been through and how it is living in those conditions in Gary, Ind.

I'm going to make my own 'Trapped In The Closet' one day, about a black kid growing up in the hood.

I'm from the inner city of Buffalo.

I grew up in Compton: 116th and Wilmington.

With 'The Chi,' it's me observing my own city and also pulling some things from themes I've dealt with in my life.

Fundamentally, one of the things I tend to migrate toward when I'm working is a story about people whose stories aren't told in theater.