My main concern is theater, and theater does not reflect or mirror society. It has been stingy and selfish, and it has to do better.

Learning is a tunnel experience that makes us think more broadly.

I am lucky: I have fantastic doctors and a fantastic dentist.

We who are in the arts are at the risk of being in a popularity contest rather than a profession. If that fact causes you despair . . . pick another profession. Your desire to communicate must be bigger than your relationship with the chaotic and unfair realities . . . We have to create our own standards of discipline.

When I got out of acting school, I was lucky to have gotten any job at all. A lot of people hiring African American actresses - it was right after 'Roots,' and for society, not me, it was great. Nice richly dark-skinned people was the fashion, and I was not.

I call the language of political figures, pundits and administrators "the haute couture of language."

What you are will show, ultimately. Start now, every day, becoming, in your actions, your regular actions, what you would like to become in the bigger scheme of things.