Watched Star Wars in 77 and that's when I got into watching films. I was just blown away by it.

I was a shy little girl, nothing like what I am now.

Singing was the big focus and outlet for me.

Chick Corea was a great influence on me, musically, as I was growing up.

I face every project the same way - do it right and give 110%. 100% isn't good enough.

My family is very theatrical.

When I was five years old I knew I wanted to act.

I have to approach my life in this way so I can do what I need to do, and do it very well.

I hated stand-up.

Watched Star Wars in 77 and that's when I got into watching films. I was just blown away by it.

It's all about humanity, humility, and integrity.

People who don't use the tools given to them only injure themselves.

I've played piano and guitar when I was younger.

My driving force is spirituality.

I fit into the quirky, character class type of actor.

My older sister Nikki went to Hampton music school in Virginia, then to another school later in New York.

So many comics have such low self-esteem.

There is a class system in acting just like in anything else. Black females fall in a category below black male actors.

And I used to listen to a lot of jazz.

We always performed for our church, but we also just performed whenever the family got together.

I'm not the classic type - fair skin, very beautiful women of a classic type, I'm talking about now.

Voice is my instrument.

If you're going to do something, make it right and make it as good as you can. Don't waste anybody's time, especially your own.

I got an early education from television.

This business is all about being seen, and the more people see you the better.

Work is an activity that is financially-driven or one that you'd like to do less of.

Surrounded by military airplanes and warships from the world's most civilized and developed nations, we have been denied permission by friendly governments, for reasons of security, to land anywhere, but in the tiny, and still neutral, Republic of Djibouti.

The poet is the priest of the invisible.

What I always knew about my parents was that they were in love, and this love had a fizz. It was exciting to be their child, to be around them. There was a dynamism between them, a charge.

'Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere' took me six years to write.

If kisses were the water I would give you the sea, if hugs were the leaves I would give you a tree, but if love was time, I would give you eternity. Before I met you I never knew what it was like. to look at someone and smile for no reason.

I do think, however, that there's a very diverse point of view in the African-American community. There's a lot of different voices that need to be heard. I don't claim and pretend to know the thoughts and opinions and ideas of all African-Americans.

I can almost always read a new manuscript overnight.

If I'm put in a situation where I am not really sure what's going to happen, it can be overwhelming. I get a bit anxious.

There are so many people that use "following your dreams" as an excuse to not work. When in reality, following your dreams, successfully, is nothing but work.

Self-awareness is the ability to take an honest look at your life without any attachment to it being right or wrong, good or bad.

No matter what problem you encounter, whether it's a grand challenge for humanity or a personal problem of your own, there's an idea out there that can overcome it. And you can find that idea.

The idea of doing a production of 'Carousel' that doesn't feel like it's stuck in the 1950s really intrigues me.

The first thing I'll do if I want to look really crappy is, I don't wear any makeup at all.

Book love... is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures.

If you care about other people, you might try to organize to undermine power and authority. That's not going to happen if you care only about yourself.

My greatest accomplishment is receiving my role on 'Guiding Light.'

I don't want preconceptions. I want to learn as much as possible.

The president, it seems to me, stands out as the one person in our system who is in a unique position where the checks on any lack of integrity there are more important than for anyone else in the system of government.

Architecture is a slow business, and city planning even slower.

The greatest thing in family life is to take a hint when a hint is intended and not to take a hint when a hint is not intended.

Two heads are better than one

If you could have a news program without commercials, it would be better. But is a news program with commercials better than no news program at all? My view was, I'll take the one with commercials versus no news program at all.

Give me liberty or give me death.