You have to split, bend over backward, touch our toe to our heads to get recognized.

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.

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

My aunty says I'm the double of my father. He was a workaholic, which I've definitely inherited. And like me, he could be the life and soul of the party, but also quite withdrawn.

I've been here before and will come again, but I'm not going this trip through.

Because we are not separate and we are a strand in the web of this existence, there is nothing about us - which includes who we are and what we do - that is not happening perfectly.

Classic author moment, "Oh dear, did I kill that character or not?

The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror... so today I vetoed it.

Evil men of every degree will use you, flatter you, lead you on until you are useless; then, if the virtuous do not pity you, or God compassionate, you are without a friend in the universe.

Certain signs are the forerunners of certain events.

I go around the world dealing with running and hiding... I can't take a walk in the park . I can't go to the store... I have to hide in the room. You feel like you're in prison.

Rose, oh pure contradiction, joy of being No-one's sleep under so many lids.

You know, I can get kind of spunky or I can get tough, you know, that kind of tough, sexy look. But sexy? No, I don't think so.