When I get recognized, every time feels like the first time.

I have a gajillion headbands - yellows, pinks, reds, blues. I'm obsessed.

I was babysitting the night High School Musical premiered last year. I watched with the kids and we sang along to the lyrics. I was making $12 an hour.

I'm good in the kitchen. I can cook seafood, collard greens, black-eyed peas.

In case of emergency, do whatever your best friends tell you to do!

I'm an adventurer. I believe in being bold and brave - and taking risks. Even if I'm afraid of something, I'll still have a go at it.

As an African American actress there are people who have been staples in my life that opened a door that I can walk through. I hope that I can have that impact.

If every young person pursued their greatest passion and then said, 'What part of this can be applied to social good?' You don't have to choose between being successful and being a philanthropist.

I really understand the idea of pride and honour. I have that in my family, so I understand it completely.

Do your own thing; always follow your dreams and don't feel limited by what someone prescribes to you as to what you should do. Expand your horizons, try new things, be adventurous.

I play so young because of my looks.

A light rain touches my cheek like an angel's butterfly kisses.

As a king can wear a crown, a crown can also weary a king.

Stories are the only thing that I can be bothered with. Its the only way that I can do anything, even if Im quite useless. Its the only area in being human where I could be a little useful.

One day in Dipstick, Nebraska, or Landfill, Oklahoma, is worth more to me than an eternity in Dante's plastic Paradiso, or Yeats's gold-plated Byzantium.

Disapproval is a very important factor in all progress. There has really never been any progress without it.

If the thunder don't get ya then the lightning will.

Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos.

I never saw a discontented tree.

The blues is the foundation, and it's got to carry the top. The other part of the scene, the rock 'n' roll and the jazz, are the walls of the blues.

Barack Obama knows that America cannot be strong abroad unless we are strong at home. People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than the example of our power.