I don't think in a box. I think in a sphere.
— Brandon Victor Dixon
My hero is Michael Jackson. Was and continues to be. He's amazing. When I was growing up, it was the time of 'Thriller' and 'Bad.' I'd come home from school and put on the vinyls. I'd put on a white V-neck T-shirt and roll back the carpet and dance for hours. I'd moonwalk and do the spins.
Oprah's such a wonderful spirit; she's been given a lot of gifts in her life, and she gives them back.
Berry Gordy has always been this hazy legendary figure that I've known about in my childhood that was responsible for everything that I found important in the world.
Gymnastics is my favorite Olympic sport, hands-down.
As artists, our job is to communicate thoughts and tell stories.
I'm a very philanthropically oriented individual. There are a lot of causes that I support, and I'm a big fan of advocacy.
Every day alive in the 'Power' world is a beautiful day.
I always thought from my knowledge of London theater and the audiences here that they would appreciate a truly genius piece of theatrical work.
We need to encourage people to speak up, to speak out, because the more people who participate in our democracy, the more our democracy grows.
As a country, we like to ignore our past. We don't like to look at it.
I think 'Rent' will run forever.
'Rent' audiences tend to be pretty vocal. They scream and cheer a lot.
It is relatively impossible for people to have clear perspectives on themselves when they're in the midst of them, and often harder to recollect after the times, eras, and situations themselves have passed.
People talking about making America great again? America's never been great. The greatness of America is in its pursuit of greatness.
I work in musical theater because people keep writing quality stories in the genre, and I'm really all about investing in a piece that says something about our current time, that is, a reflection on who we are today.
I think that there is such power with the live performance of it - so much of what 'Motown' is about is the live performance aspect, really. The power of our production is really the music and the performances.
When you mess up, what are you going to do? Just keep going. And speak loudly.
I got to meet Colm Wilkinson once, and I was ecstatic.
The biggest thing Motown did was change our social fabric: the way we interacted with each other as human beings.
Telling diverse stories is at the heart of our culture.
If people are coming to 'Hamilton' to leave their politics behind, you came to the wrong show.
Coming out in a bedazzled tank top and silver jeans and singing 'Superstar' with a 36-piece band and 28 dancers around me is one of the dopest things I've ever had the opportunity to do.
The first musical I ever saw was 'Ragtime.'
I was a fan of 'Power' before I was working on the show, so I'm excited by every script that comes into my hands.
Part of the elements of the electoral college is creation. Certainly it was created in slave states and them wanting to balance power, but there's not a specific set of the country always determining who the president is.
I know a lot of people say, 'You're an athlete or actor... and you shouldn't speak up.' I think that makes no sense. No matter who you are, no matter what you do in the country, you're a part of our democracy, and if you have a voice, you need to use it.
My love for The Four Tops cannot be expressed greatly enough.
My No. 1 artistic inspiration in theater is Brian Stokes Mitchell.
The producers, the creators, and the cast, we recognize that 'Hamilton' is an inherently American story told by the definition of an American community; we are men and women of different colors, creeds, and orientations.
I really only knew the name Berry Gordy growing up, but I didn't know what he looked like or anything about him.
There's nothing wrong with being honest about what you are.
I grew up in the Episcopal Church, went to private school in that church, went to chapel every day.
Oh, yeah - 'The Good Wife' was a lot of fun to do. It was a short scene I did, but Josh Charles was very nice, and Julianna Margulies was so sweet. We had a very good time.
If you empathize with your fellow humans on stage, you can't help but do so offstage as well.
I spent summers in my room listening to cast albums, like 'Les Miserables,' every night. I knew it backwards and forwards. I want to be the first black Jean Valjean.
Everyone you talk to in the world, whether they know it or not, because the catalog is so vast, a lot of times people have favorite songs that are Motown songs that they didn't even know were Motown songs.
I very rarely go back to do shows again. I'm done once I've learned the lessons I need to learn.
Style and image - it's what Motown is about. They had a charm school led by Maxine Powell. There was literally an artists' development department.
I feel like the more we speak for and support others, the less we'll have to worry about speaking for and supporting ourselves.
I always wanted to be a Broadway star. That's actually what I wanted to be when I was a kid. I wanted to be the 19-year-old sensation on Broadway. It took a little bit longer than that.
My business partner Warren Adams and I formed our company WalkRunFly as part of what felt like a logical progression: if you want to execute things to your satisfaction, then you want to have as much control as you can. That leads to helping create work for others, not just yourself.
I think that it's important to make criticisms of the government as a whole and criticisms of the policies, but to do so in a way that you can invite the individuals who maybe were on the opposition before, or who voted for somebody whom you are in disagreement with... that you open the door for a conversation with those people.
It's important to seize any opportunity one has to speak to their elected representatives, no matter the situation.
My introduction to Motown was through The Jackson Five and Michael Jackson. Michael's been my greatest creative inspiration, so that's how I really became familiar with Motown as a whole, and as I got older, I learned far more about the other groups.
I practice a personal meditation and have a gala apple before each show.
Nothing surprises me about Berry Gordy.
We have to look honestly at ourselves and recognize the positives, the negatives, and the challenges we can overcome.
Whether or not your candidate wins, the crucial importance is the integrity of our voting system. You have to engage in the process in order to change it.
For me, religion is a political construct, and spirituality is a community construct, and there's a real difference.