It's the best honor when someone wants to use as their professional title the name of a character that you portrayed.

My people were homesteading in Colorado before Emancipation.

I like serious films, the moneymaking blockbusters that don't make any kind of sense and John Carpenter films.

That's what he was saying, the civil rights movement - judge me for my character, not how black my skin is, not how yellow my skin is, how short I am, how tall or fat or thin; It's by my character.

Struggle and survival, losing and winning, doesn't matter. It's entering the race that counts. You enter, you can win, you can lose .... but it's all about entering the race.

Me, sexy? I'm just plain ol' beans and rice.

I really hate to see abusive behavior being passed on from generation to generation to generation, when we have access to health and counseling.

I don't believe that I should just do A-movies, I just do the work as an artist.

Women are allowed more freedoms and we're fighting for more freedoms, we're experiencing more freedoms won.

My grandfather was the first feminist in my life. He taught me if a woman can do something, a man will respect her.

And as I reinvent myself and I'm constantly curious about everything, I can't wait to see what's around the corner in newfound art and entertainment and exploration.

In order to know the world from the outside, you must know yourself from the inside.

Waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one's thoughts.

It's really rare that you come across a Southern character that's not stereotyped, vilified or aggrandized.

Be careful what you ask for because when you pray for rain, you have to deal with the mud as well.

When I hear artists or authors making fun of businessmen, I think of a regiment in which the band makes fun of the cooks.

Leave people better than you found them.

Hey, I always say: if you want a quiet life, become a monk.

The advance and perfecting of mathematics are closely joined to the prosperity of the nation.

Even today, I'm much more comfortable dressed in a male kind of way.

Yet, it is true, poetry is delicious; the best prose is that which is most full of poetry.