“I was trying to pay the bills with poems, and it was easy to memorize ...” — Omari Hardwick Quote

“I was trying to pay the bills with poems, and it was easy to memorize my poems, because I'd be riding my bike in California trying to memorize them before going on stage at a poetry lounge.”

“If your character is just out there acting a fool, viewers are gonna say, 'Why am I watching this?' But if he's whispering, 'I don't really want to die,' there's a level of vulnerability cemented in these bad characters.”

“I would honestly say I'm in the turtle's race. My journey is a marathon.”

“I've sort of been an anthropologist of modern America, in a non-academic way. Whether it's Marines or Tupperware salesladies, high end audiophiles or bike couriers, I'm fascinated by the hallmarks of the American tribe.”

“I'll stay on my bike until I've burnt a certain amount of calories or made sure I'm in negative calories for the end of the day.”

“At the end of the day, I'm riding a little kid's bike around a track; that's what I've done for as long as I can remember. Now it's just on a bigger stage at the Olympics.”