Artists are the people that no matter what, pick up the pen, pick up a paintbrush. They take the time to translate what is happening to create something that resonates deeply with the rest of the people that are caught in the middle of their own reality.

I mean, I think a healthy country is a country where people are healthy physically, and a smart country is a country where people are educated.

Listening is not just hearing what someone tells you word for word. You have to listen with a heart. I don't want that to sound touchy-feely; it is not. It is very hard work.

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.

That artists are called to be more responsible and 'true' is a tip of hat to their power.

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.

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