My definition of cool is finding your own definition of cool and not necessarily taking your lead from what other people tell you or from what you might read from magazines or see on TV.

My father is black and my mother is white. Therefore, I could answer to either, which kind of makes me a racial Lone Ranger, caught between two communities.

I’ve never seen American Idol but I am grateful to them. That show is one of Fox’s biggest moneymakers, and some of that money goes to pay for shows like Prison Break. Simon Cowell’s been signing my paychecks and for that I say thanks.

I worked with the same trainer that worked with Denzel Washington in THe Hurricane. It was three months of training, five days a week, 4 to 5 hours a day. This was followed by a month of choreography.

If I were to wait only for roles that clarify my racial makeup, I’d be waiting for a very, very long time.

I feel extremely lucky, extremely grateful, and a little bittersweet, too.

I have to laugh internally when I’m asked in interviews what nightspots I like to hit. I just don’t have answers… so sometimes I make them up.

They told me at the end of that test that they wanted me to be a part of this project. I walked out and had a moment of clarity where I thought, not many people will ever have this moment.

Prison Break is so far-fetched, I had to make viewers believe that Michael is capable of making the impossible possible.

I made a decision not to work out because I’m lazy and also, the character is not a superhero. I didn’t want him to be a buff guy with Jackie Chan moves because the point is he’s smarter than your average Joe.

I broke my nose in gym when a ball hit me. I took a girl to her debutante ball the next week wearing a tux and a big, honking bandage. Not the romantic night she had in mind.

I’m kind of a dork. I don’t have much game. I’m not particularly comfortable in bars or clubs. I much prefer being home playing Scrabble, having dinner with a couple friends, going to see a movie, or losing a whole weekend to Season 14 of Law and Order or The Simpsons.

To be honest, I find going out pretty scary and intimidating. Got all those people checking you out, with only one purpose: hooking up. I’m quite the dork, I’d rather sit home and play Scrabble. But that doesn’t get you a girl, does it?

Confidence is at the root of so many attractive qualities, a sense of humor, a sense of style, a willingness to be who you are no matter what anyone else might think or say and it’s true, I do have a certain fondness for women that have dark hair.

Four months of preparation and about 12 hours of shooting turned into about 30 seconds of screen time.

I feel as though we’re living in a time where there is very little distinction paid between the personal and the professional.

It was just expected that I would go to college. Both my parents are teachers and they tolerated acting, but I was going to go to a school of quality or bust. Which made my downshifting back to acting afterward a little difficult.

I want to aspire to something like what Denzel Washington does, which is try to find scripts written for white actors – or Jodie Foster, who reads scripts for male actors.

My character in ‘Prison Break’ needs to be formidable. In reality, I’m not very tough at all.

You have to love what you do, and you have to need it like you need air. And there’s nothing else that would give me the same degree of satisfaction as acting, which is why I can’t walk away from it.

You’re confronted with the quandary: do I grind things to a halt? Ideally you would, but I have better things to do than educate people.

Nobody’s ever asked me to pay for a meal before I’ve eaten it, I’ve never been pulled over just because I was driving the wrong kind of car in the wrong kind of area at the wrong time of night.

A racial community provides not only a sense of identity, that luxury of looking into another’s face and seeing yourself reflected back, but a sense of security and support.

When I got to college, acting suddenly seemed like a very risky proposition and all my friends were going to law school or med school or Wall Street.

My encounters with racism are sort of second-hand situations where I might be standing around with a group of white friends and someone makes a comment that they wouldn’t make at my family reunion.

A great book provides escapism for me. The artistry and the creativity in a story are better than any drugs.

I’m neither sexy nor a star.

This role is more visible, and I grew up without a lot of that sort of modeling so I’m relieved and proud to have done this film.

Michael Scofield is someone everyone can relate to, but nobody would want to be in his shoes.

I’ve been spoiled by this project. I was given the script and went in to read, realizing that this was a powerful story and one that wasn’t told very often.

I’m very pleased with being a part of the Bean Pole family. It’s a relationship that makes sense to me. I’m very pleased to have my name associated with Bean Pole Jeans.

I’m pretty much a couch potato.

There has to be a measure of faith. That’s what this business is all about: trusting in something that may never show up, that you have no concrete proof of.

There’ll be moments when I’m out in the prison yard, chatting with the cast and the crew, getting ready to shoot a scene. And then I’ll remember if I were actually an inmate, I’d only be out there an hour. The other 23 hours of the day, I’d be in my cell. It’s kind of a downer.

Everyone has their challenges.

I’ve been spared to a large extent the business end of the race stick.

I hadn’t worked for a year when I had my Prison Break audition and it was the easiest audition I’ve ever had. I got the script on Friday, went to the audition on Monday and got the part on Tuesday. I was shooting the pilot a week later. I didn’t have time to be nervous – it happened so quickly.

In my career as an actor, there is a catchphrase that Scofield always says often in regards to his brother, ‘Have a little faith.’ In my own career as an actor, there were times when I was the only one who believed in myself in the face of the odds.

My definition of cool is finding your own definition of cool and not necessarily taking your lead from what other people tell you or from what you might read from magazines or see on TV.

There’s so much we can’t express in our day-to-day interaction with people because it’s considered inappropriate. And acting is all about being inappropriate.