Acting is just a way of making a living, the family is life.

I talked to my mother about it a lot. I asked her what it was like to grow up in New York and Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s, and I asked her about a woman leaving her husband. I asked her about how she would feel about that woman, and my mother grew up in the Church Of God In Christ, and she told me that the woman might be isolated because the other women thought she might go and come after their husbands. That's how they thought then.

It's not what you know, it's what you can prove.

My father was a minister for 50 years with Pentecostal Church of God in Christ. We prayed about everything, every day, then he always said, "Amen. God is love." I thought God is love was one word. Like "Godislove." And it took me a long time to learn what that really meant.

Every punch that's thrown is mine. Every punch that's caught, I catch.

I know, as an actor, I don't like sharing everything with the director. And it's fine if they don't with me.

Every failed experiment is one step closer to success.