Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. They're what make the instrument stretch-what make you go beyond the norm.

We have to support our own films. If we don't, how can we expect others to support them?

I was in California when this journalist made a blanket statement about the fact that she did not think that black men and women had the kind of love relationship that Rebecca and Nathan had in Sounder.

Ali... we should have gone to see that movie. Malcolm X was another one.

In my early years, there were a number of experiences that made me decide I could not afford the luxury of just being an actress. There were a number of issues I wanted to address. And I wanted to use my career as a platform.

Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. They're what make the instrument stretch-what make you go beyond the norm.

You never know what motivates you.

When I attack a role, be it TV, film or stage, the first thing I say is, I don't want to know anything. If it's good I don't want to hear it; if it's bad I don't want to hear it. The only thing either thing can do is distract me. I like to stay focused.

I think when you begin to think of yourself as having achieved something, then there's nothing left for you to work towards. I want to believe that there is a mountain so high that I will spend my entire life striving to reach the top of it.

When I told my mother that I wanted to be an actress, she said, you can't live here and do that, and so I moved out. I was determined to prove her wrong because she was so sure that I was going to go astray. And that's the juice that kept me going.

I don't condemn anyone for making their choices. If someone chooses those roles, fine. But not for me. When someone stops me and says, You're the reason I became an actress, that lets me know I made the right decision.

Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew.

My mother was an introvert and quite religious. And we were brought up in the church. And when she learned that I wanted to act, she simply said: 'You cannot live here and do that.'

One lady told me that before she saw 'Sounder' she didn't believe black people could love each other, have deep relationships in the same way as white people.

The choices of roles I made had to do with educating and entertaining. And as a result I found myself working only every two or three years.

It doesn't hurt to show some empathy.

Networking is not about just connecting people. It's about connecting people with people, people with ideas, and people with opportunities.

A minimum precaution: keep your anti-malware protections up to date, and install security updates for all your software as soon as they arrive.

Young boys should never be sent to bed, they always wake up another day older.

'Eraserhead' is a weird, horrible nightmare, and it doesn't narratively make sense. Stuff's happening, but you honestly feel like you're in a nightmare, and it has such disturbing imagery that it stays with you forever once you've seen it.

Beauty is grace and confidence. I've learned to accept and appreciate what nature gave me.

The last thing I'd learn, well into my career, was how to get on, how to say hello, how to get in with the audience.

Having come to realize in the first stage of meditation that we are not our bodies, in the second stage we make an even more astounding discovery; we are not our minds either.

When a parasite moves to a new habitat, it can find new hosts through a process called the trans-species jump. Often, the new host has no resistance; it and the parasite haven't had time to adjust to each other through natural selection (it is frequently not in the best interest of a parasite to kill its host quickly).

When honor comes to you be ready to take it But reach not to seize it before it is near.

When Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell first proposed the grants that now bear his name, he envisioned a way to help students attend our country's wonderful colleges and universities, so they could share in the American Dream.

I've just seen that there is a really amazing perspective that we're missing by not having more women directing.

To be a clergyman, and all that is compassionate and virtuous, ought to be the same thing.

Is the prestige conferred by the Man Booker prize for the book or me? I would prefer it on the book and for me to be treated ordinarily.

We're all in the same room, so I want people to be involved with one another, but again you can't decide exactly to what extent that operates. It varies all the time and it depends on the show, it depends on the audience, it depends on everything.

History is important but... I just wanna sing Beyonce songs all day long in front of a mirror.

Social media changes the relationship between companies and customers from master and servant, to peer to peer.

When I'm doing interviews, I'm doing interviews, and when I am writing, I'm writing. I sit there with a musician and I write. It's the same process since I started writing in my twenties. I like to come in and leave with a finished song.

Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.

As an artist, I'm very used to waking up and sort of not knowing what my day's going to be and not knowing where my next paycheck is going to come from.

My writing is sort of 'Sidney Sheldon meets Anne Tyler.'

American credibility in the war on terrorism depends on a strong stand against all terrorist acts, whether committed by foe or friend.

I'm a huge reggae fan. I want to go to Jamaica and make, like, Bob Marley 'One Love' positive songs. That's what the world needs.

Transcendental meditation is like a car, a vehicle that allows you to go within. It's a mental technique.