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.

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

Some people study a text very deeply. The people are my text. I study their words and what their words sound like, over and over again. When I was a kid, my grandfather said that "if you say a word often enough, it becomes you." Thinking of that later in life gave me this idea that I could try to become America by learning the words of people from many aspects of the country. It doesn't matter how educated they are. By living in the world and living their experiences, they bring extraordinary truths. I try to do those truths justice.

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

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

I happen to be a hopeaholic. I tend to look at problems as an opportunity to do some work.

I am not myself; I am the potential of myself.