Pedigree matters: if you break your shoulder trying to open a door, it's much harder to play the game once you get in the room.

I was a little girl with a pot belly and Afro puffs, hyperactive and overdramatic, and I found the theater and I found my home.

I want to thank all the shoulders of the strong and brave and courageous women that I am standing on.

The only thing I've ever wanted to do in my entire life is to be on Broadway.

...and if you hear something you know, please sing along. No wait - I take that back - you can't sing along - this is about me now - this is my show.

The authentic Gullah dialect is actually very clipped, and so it would sound almost Jamaican and be very odd to an American audience's ears. It's not the typical Southern dialect that we're used to.

Whatever is the scariest is almost always what I end up choosing.

Theater doesn't bring money in general. That's not why you do it. If you go into theater for money then you've really gone into the wrong business.

Music was all over my house, and all over literally my genetic house, and my house in the literal sense. So I kind of couldn't avoid it.

I think for a lot of people that are in performing arts, it's easy to fall into the trap of starting to confuse what's real life and what's not, because to your body it's all real.

It's easy to spend - especially in this day and age - to spend your time not being in the present. It's very easy to be way ahead. What's tomorrow and the day after that?

'Harlem: The Unmaking of a Ghetto' is a surprise and a fresh way of looking at Harlem, connecting the black district with the architecture of its historical past.

Small things affects small minds.

I think I have made just one picture that I really like.

I think that different things sell in different countries.

Change is the healthiest way to survive.

At home, be grateful. At work, be appreciative. Gratitude is a gift we give ourselves. Appreciation is a gift we give to others.

Every generation deals with the breaking down of its tradition, and I think that they rediscovered the film.

Myself is thus and so, and will continue thus and so. And why fight it? My balance comes from instability.

I adore the company of other writers because they are so often lively minds and, frequently, blazingly funny. And of course, we get each other in a unique way.

Top Gun was one of my favorite movies growing up.