I was lucky that my mother had a very well-adjusted perspective of the world, and never pressured me to do anything I didn't want to do.

Don't worry about society's conditioning and the labels that are put on you by external forces. Hold onto your true self.

I try not to define myself. Other people are going to do that for you anyway.

As a biracial girl growing up in England, I'd never really seen any historical characters who looked like me depicted on film before that weren't being brutalized or playing slaves.

I try to define myself through my own choices rather than just accepting society's kind of you're that, you're that, let me put you in a box kind of thing.

I think, irrespective of your race, everybody has moments in life where they don't fit in, or where they try to puzzle through who they really are or to find the courage of their convictions.

But when you become a slave to a public persona and don’t feel comfortable without it, it becomes a shield and it shouldn’t come at the expense of your self-worth.

Different fragrances promote different emotions, and I find that fragrance gets me in the frame of mind for that person.

I'm a multi-faceted human being.

From the age of four, I loved ballet and tap. I was in the school band, the choir, and all my school plays.

I think all characters that we play are facets of ourselves.

The role of godly parents is to make sure that the hearts and minds of their children are saturated with the Word of God.

T[he rules of writing] require that the episodes in a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help to develop it.

With malice towards none; with charity for all.

People are as happy as they choose to be.

Arguing with people is like reading your e-mail at 4 in the morning. There is absolutely no good that can come of it. It's just scratching an itch.

I am convinced that there can be luxury in simplicity.

New York may be the city that never sleeps, but Shanghai doesn't even sit down, and not just because there is no room.

Climate change policies cannot be the frosting on the cake of development; they must be baked into the recipe of growth and social development.

Lying's a certain mark of cowardice.

Grief makes one hour ten.