Considering that I'm British and I talk the way I do, I love it when a director takes a chance on me.

I was sometimes called 'coconut' when I was at school.

One of the things I have an allergic reaction to playing, especially as a black actor, is the mandatory kind of best friend/cop/detective type. You will never see me in that movie.

You can’t have people curating culture in this way when we need to see things in order to reform from them.

If you merely focus on what we already know, then it's not revelatory. You may as well just go and watch a documentary or a few videos on Youtube, and you're good.

I don't have a tailor, but I do love clothes.

Excellence is the best weapon against prejudice.

Find the audience, be excellent, and you will be fine.

I truly believe that one of the things that has been lacking in the USA is a spirit of repentance about the injustices of slavery and the injustices of segregation and racism generally.

We can't afford to deny our past in a bid to be empowered. But what we can do is contextualize the past.

There's a nimble quality to the way a television actor can work. When that muscle gets strong it's a very valuable thing.

Because it is my destiny, Zabdas! Because I've always known the gods made me for something more -- more than just a wife, just a mother, just a woman. They made me for power!

It takes courage to stand for what you believe in.

It was the joy of admiration and of one's own ability, growing together.

I would love to do a reunion tour if it only involved basements across the U.S.

I am sure you have met diplomats; they probably travel far less than you do. Okay, they get to know a place very intensely - sometimes only the capitol city.

No increase in the welfare of the member of society can result from the availability of an additional quantity of money.

Anything can feed you, depending on the way you look at it.

The Empress is legitimate, my cousin is Republican, Morny is Orleanist, I am a socialist; the only Bonapartist is Persigny, and he is mad.

As far as I know, my husband never had a baby.

A prophet weeps while others are laughing.