Hollywood needs to recognise all shades of African American beauty.

Hollywood needs to recognise all shades of African American beauty.

I'm not going to change the world overnight. It's one person at a time, and hopefully they're people in positions of power who can help people get in those roles and really, truly embrace colorblind casting.

I love romantic comedies. They're for me the easiest thing to do and the most natural to do. There's nothing natural about holding an uzi hanging out of a moving van shooting at people. That's not second nature to me, thank God.

I'm just riding this train as long as I can. As long as I'm having fun, I'll do it. When it stops being fun, I'll try something else. Maybe I'll open up a chain of Popeye's Chicken.

A couple of my friends started having babies, and I thought, 'Maybe one day, with the right guy.' I have to find the guy first.

A lot of women seem to think the way to ingratiate themselves is to put down other women or backstab. That's the quickest way to be eliminated from my life - try that with me, and you're out.

After Halle Berry does her films and Queen Latifah does her films, it's left to all the black, Latino and Asian actresses to fight over a couple of roles. I opted for some TV. There's just not a ton of work in film.

As a newly married person, as much as I would love for my husband to buy into the 'my way or the highway' philosophy, you realize it's all about compromising and finding some sort of middle ground that everyone can live with.

Before I got married, I dated the gamut.

Boys are so much drama.

But I prefer to go to comedies. Give me Julia Roberts smiling anyday.

Drama can feel like therapy whereas comedy feels like there's been a pressure and a weight lifted off of you. You come to work and you laugh all day, you go home and you feel light and there's a certain feeling when you're sitting with the audience and they leave after 90 minutes and it's just pure escapism and they're happy.

I can't just say one time of the year I'm going to do something different. I have to commit to a lifestyle behavioral change and just try to be a little bit better today than I was yesterday.

I don't function well in chaos, whether it be my sheets or the dishwasher.

I drink a gallon of water a day.

I had to learn - since I'm divorced now and everyone is like, 'Oh my God, you're single, what's going on?' - that if I don't like to spend time with myself, how can I ask someone else to enjoy spending time with me? I'm getting to learn how to enjoy my solitude and have a good time.

I just kind of assumed that you do a movie and then you leave and you hop onto the next thing. I never thought that people are actually buddies.

I just thought acting would be something to help out with my student loans, but my first year as an actress, I made more money than my parents. That's when I realized it could turn into a career. After that, I put everything I had into it.

I like meat and carbohydrates.

I love TV. I love the stability of it.

I love horses.

I played sports year around: basketball, soccer, softball and I ran track year around, from the time I was, like, six, seven.

I realized I had been keeping people around even when deep down I knew they were bad for me. I had overridden myself.

I think if we open ourselves to all different kinds of men and all groups, we find a lot more opportunities to love.

I think there's a lot of things that occur within the African-American community, that we would prefer to stay within the African-American community - that we get a little nervous when you start having scenes or dialogue that we know is going to be viewed and heard on a national or global scale.

I want to be Miss USA or Miss America. I would bring the trophy back to Nebraska. My interests are agriculture and corn. Hey, I'm just riding this train as long as I can. As long as I'm having fun, I'll do it. When it stops being fun, I'll try something else.

I was always in the popular crowd, but I really had atrocious teeth. I was encouraged to 'do well in school, 'cause no one's going to marry you!'

I was at one time a football wife, and there is a certain level of bonding that happens between women who are the wives of football players.

I'm not sensitive, I'm not a weepy person.

I'm not the type to lay out on the beach, but I do love to work out outside, and that can really take a toll on your skin!

I'm the kind of person whose clothes are all hung up and color-coordinated, to the point where my whites don't touch my creams.

I've always had an interest in sports across the board.

I've been trying to get cast as a lesbian for years.

I've dated a number of 'mama's boys.'

If my real life was half as exciting as what is reported, I would be thrilled.

If someone lacked decency or respect, I didn't allow that person to stay in my world.

In Hollywood, you play a mom and instantly, you've got osteoporosis.

In my career, there have been roles I haven't taken because someone involved with the project gave me a bad vibe. I don't care how much money is on the table: No job is worth feeling uneasy every day.

My friends are very opinionated about the people I date.

My mom is painfully sweet; she's from Nebraska.

Reality TV looks more like America than movies do.

Right now, I don't have the same urges as other women when they see a baby. When I see children, I see responsibilities, which I don't think I'm quite ready for. I feel the same about puppies. They're cute for a second, but there's a lot of responsibility involved.

Sometimes it's not even a role that's specifically written for a woman. It could be a role written for a white man or Asian man, or Latino. If it's something that I feel I could do well, I go after it. Especially if it's nothing that has to be gender or race specific, I'm all over it.

There's no such thing as a healthy tan, and that's what people need to understand.

We all have to let go of the Prince Charming complex and realize he doesn't necessarily exist in the package we assume he'll come in.

We don't consider black, urban films as 'indies,' though many of them are shot for under $10 million which is kind of the definition of an indie.

We give a lot of others significance in our lives even when they don't deserve it. It doesn't matter if they're family or if you've known them forever. If they're not good for you, they've got to go.

When someone who loves and cares about me compliments me, I feel more glamorous than when the flashbulbs are going off on the red carpet.