Whatever good I have accomplished as an actress I believe came in direct proportion to my efforts to portray black women who have made positive contributions to my heritage.

The moment anyone tries to demean or degrade you in any way, you have to know how great you are. Nobody would bother to beat you down if you were not a threat.

Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. They're what make the instrument stretch - what make you go beyond the norm.

I am not a quitter. I will fight until I drop. It is just a matter of having some faith in the fact that as long as you are able to draw breath in the universe, you have a chance.

If each person in this world will simply take a small piece of this huge thing, this amazing quilt, and work it regardless of the color of the yarn, we will have harmony on this planet.

I saw that I could not afford the luxury of just being an actress. So I made a choice to use my career as a platform to address the issues of the race I was born into.

You never know what motivates you.

All I have to do is find someone who has something to say that will enrich my life and they can't get rid of me.

Children should have a balanced start in life: a mother and a father. I think that's the only reason to get married.

We have to support our own films. If we don't, how can we expect others to support them?

I will lead my people out of bondage, Lord.

Even a friendship needs an effort from both sides, how can we expect a relationship to work from the effort of one..!! It should be a true-hearted commitment from both involve.

It is a truism but it is still true that the longer one knows people the less relevant it becomes whether or not one liked them initially.

It is better to be hungry in joy, than to be filled in sorrow.

I would not say that the future is necessarily less predictable than the past. I think the past was not predictable when it started.

I can say with unwavering certitude that I have never started a pint of Ben 'n Jerry's ice cream that I didn't finish in its entirety within 6 minutes.

You're 60 But honestly it doesn't show Mind you, you reached the age of consent About 50,000 consents ago!

You look at Gone With the Wind, how right Vivian Leigh was for that. Don't know if that would happen today.

Imaginative literature primarily pleases rather than teaches. It is much easier to be pleased than taught, but much harder to know why one is pleased. Beauty is harder to analyze than truth.

I don't mind being called a weirdo.

I don’t want anyone putting any limits on me.