Movies, as evidenced by a chorus of protesting and celebrating Americans, influence broader trends.

I'm interested when things are upside down - because there are so many possibilities in that one moment. There is a lot that is exposed.

I never know when somebody's going to knock on the door of my own unconscious in a way that I wouldn't have anticipated.

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.

Even jealousy is based on fantasies: a fantasy that someone else has what belongs to you.

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 would love to have been a documentary filmmaker; I just didn't have the resources to do that.