I never, in my wildest dreams, could I have thought that the first role I get out of school would lead to an Oscar nomination.

No matter where you're from, your dreams are valid.

What I've learned from myself is that I don't have to be anybody else. Myself is good enough.

You can't eat beauty, it doesn't sustain you. What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion, for yourself and those around you. That kind of beauty inflamed the heart and merchants the soul.

You fail, and then what? Life goes on. It's only when you risk failure that you discover things.

I realized that beauty was not a thing that I could acquire or consume, it was something that I just had to be.

What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion: for yourself and for those around you.

There is no shame in black beauty.

You have to allow for the impossible to be possible.

To be human is to seek perfection, and find joy in never attaining it.

I discovered that joy is not the negation of pain, but rather acknowledging the presence of pain and feeling happiness in spite of it.

Law merely indicated the sickness

A smile doesn't always stand for a perfect life.

Everything you want to be, you already are. You're simply on the path to discovering it.

If for some reason you are unsure where to go, all you have to do is stand there looking lost, and within seconds a helpful New Yorker will approach to see if you have any "spare" change.

While obsession with one’s personal appearance is a sign of being a vacant prat, total oblivion to it is a sign of mental illness.

People eyeing you as a potential leader tend to ask three questions: Are you committed? Do you care about me? Can I trust you?

I'm interested in reality but I'm not interested in realism at all.

Bite your tongue. Get a cinder in your eye. When you feel good, you feel nothing.

You can't say the public likes generic characters. Give others a chance, go for a more rooted and honest characterisation, take some risk, and then let the public choose.

You have brilliance in you, your contribution is valuable, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do, and you must.