If you're fortunate enough, you get to a position where you can be a little pickier about your roles.

Which is not to discount everything I've done in my past; everything I have learned tremendously from.

I'm actually developing a project so that I can have a lead.

We filmed one scene on the beach and there was definitely weird energy around, and we were followed around by a white owl to several different locations, and little things like that, or certain mishaps would happen and you'd have to wonder what that was about.

That's double-edged: it's amazing that they're bringing me in and showing people new ideas, and at the same time it's a little hard because seventy percent of the time or even higher I'm not going to get those roles.

In the end, I play a lot of friends and I really think it's about time that some ethnic girls get out there in the lead part. So we're developing something.

Which is why I felt I was truly blessed this year, with leads in two nice films, and also the luxury of being able to do a studio film and an independent afterwards was fantastic.

Even befor doing this film, I've always been interested in mythology.

So now I feel I'm lucky in the respect that I can sort of pick a little more carefully, which is tricky because as a black actress, there aren't that many roles to pick from.

I like to make collages - paper collages.

For six months I'd do movies and make it all about me. Then the other six months, it's not about me and it doesn't matter what my hair looks like or what anything looks like.

I don't think I'm a follower, frankly.

Editing is a natural extension of the collage making. It's actually one of the few areas that women were able to excel in in the film industry from the beginning.

If you're fortunate enough, you get to a position where you can be a little pickier about your roles.

When you work on a movie, you just have no idea how it's going to come out; you hope it's good, but you don't really know, and you don't see it until about six or nine months afterward, and I saw it and was pretty pleased.

And I can relate to that, because I went to an all white school, so I knew what that was like. And it was hard at the time, but anything that's difficult you learn from, don't you?

As far as developing a career as an actress, I think it's a fine balance between trying to just work, and also be true to yourself.

Sometimes I wonder why I'm not working at McDonald's and how come I have the life I have. I don't know. But I'm happy that I have these choices. That's kinda sappy, huh? But whatever, acting beats pumping gas.

Every soldier should learn survival on land, sea, and in the air.

The whole world is strewn with snares traps gins and pitfalls for the capture of men by women.

I was influenced by surrealist poetry and painting as were thousands of other people, and it seems to me to have become a part of the way I write, but it's not.

Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.

Books and people are hard to compare.

Even though I build buildings and I pursue my architecture, I pursue it as an artist. I deliberately keep a tiny studio. I don't want to be an architectural firm. I want to remain an artist.

People are so worried about being accepted that it causes them to lose themselves and in turn, lose moments.

Paris is beautiful, but nothing beats home.

If we are always pushing away from feelings that we condemn as wrong painful or ugly we are also pushing away from the very energy that can bring us incredible joy and ecstasy.

For an event that was wholly created in the poisonous psychological warfare kitchens of the Second World War, run by the ministries of propaganda in many countries, not just by the British or the Americans, but also the Russians and undoubtedly the world Jewish organizations.

Traditional marriage is what should be sanctioned.

I always wanna be in the process of evolving and growing.

Nothing is ever too expensive if it furthers the repertoire and artistic standards of a dance company.

When I decided to leave the military, I realized that the skills I acquired there were transferable to the commercial world both in leadership and the information technology field. I made the decision to move to Oracle because of its strong leadership role.

Elton John and Billy Joel, I find them both to be huge inspirations, those guys are so talented.

Throughout the world, terrorists are actively seeking their next recruit. Alarmingly, terrorist organizations are increasingly targeting school-age children as the next generation of terrorists.

I don't go anywhere without Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream. On airplanes, I slather it on my face and lips - I know I look crazy, and I don't care!

There's definitely a role for online booksellers, but they can't host events, bring people together, and form a personal relationship in the way a bricks-and-mortar store and its staff can.

When I was a young artist, I liked and was interested in belonging to the mainstream comics group. I didn't introduce myself as an author, but only as a designer.

I don't know what impression you might have of the way I live. I live in a quiet place. I do not live as a hermit, though other people would prefer it if I did.

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of beauty is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, but indifference between life and death.

I don't live that much with the character. I find it hard enough having to spend so many hours with the character during the day.

My niece was born with cystic fibrosis 15 years ago, and she's incredibly healthy and an incredible competitive dancer, so I'm going to do some events for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

I just love good movies. And not every movie you're going to end up in is always going to turn out right, but at least walk into it with the right intention.