Leslie Odom, Jr. Quotes
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We didn't go to Broadway musicals when I was growing up; it was too expensive.
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I wanted to make an album that was hopeful and encouraging and inspiring. That was the goal.
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People are coming to you at their most vulnerable; they're showing you the parts of themselves that they're afraid to show: the parts that they're not so sure about, not so secure in. And so it's a really holy profession I think, teaching. If you do it right, it can change somebody's life.
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I've realized along the way that a lot of things that I do as a performer are about waiting for somebody to write something for me or develop something for me, but music, music was the thing that I don't have to wait for anybody's permission to do.
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I remember Ella Fitzgerald sort of coming into my life like a bolt of lightning - like, what is that? It was one of the purest examples of God in art that I'd ever seen.
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I think for a lot of us, you know, what 'Hamilton' gave us the opportunity to, what it gave me the opportunity to do, was to go, 'Here's what I've learned in 35 years.'
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I have to remind myself that it may never be this good again.
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Until you make a name for yourself, they're like, 'Be a little more Denzel,' 'Be a little more Wesley Snipes.'
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That was the bat signal for me - 'Rent' changed my life. It took me years before I got beyond that show.
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Sometimes I think of creativity or art as this well that we all draw from.
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I don't want to leave anything offstage.
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I know what it's like to be ignored; when I got to L.A., I longed for somebody who looked like me to show me the ropes.
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I don't have any control over the offers that are going to come to me or not come to me. But I can't go backward, and so that's what's tricky.
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You must be an artist and a citizen of the world. You must speak to this stuff that's happening. You must do what you can to shine a light on it, help people through it.
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We don't get to get swept up, because we have to start over every day at 8 o'clock.
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I have a great foundation, a great training foundation. But it took me a long time to let the training go.
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There's this Frank Wildhorn tune 'Sarah' - it's not a widely known tune, but it's my favorite song to sing.
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My dad was always in sales. My mom had a heart for the ages. Worked in recreation, doing rehabilitation in nursing homes. Very nice, practical folks who were very proud of me but had no inclination toward the stage in any way.
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I'm the nap champion.
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Making $1,260 a week at 17 years old? That was a million dollars a week to me!
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When I see the black experience - there's not one, but it is specific, and you can't ignore it.
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What's a better foundation for drama? You have power, you have ambition, you have sex... that's the stuff of drama.
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I remember when I was in 'Rent,' Daphne Rubin-Vega threw a party. At the time, she had a loft in TriBeCa, and the elevator opened right into her apartment. I was like, 'I've never seen anything like that.' I didn't know it was possible.
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We want to pull out songs from the American song book, and we want to make them palatable for a modern audience.