[Black people] come into the world exactly like you. It's just that there are circumstances in the culture that are dictated and put on our lives that we have to fight against.

There's racism everywhere.

I'm from around Tennessee. I ran away when I was 12 years old and I ain't never looked back.

You don't know when you're being watched. That's one of the weird things about celebrity. It's my least favorite part of acting, celebrity.

That's where you can find things and modulate your performance and give the other actors something fresh to respond to. We've probably all worked with actors who when it's suddenly your close up, they get sleepy. I don't like that. It's selfish acting, and I won't tolerate it.

[My father] could see as far as he could see and my mother wanted us to go to college so it was a very real part of my life.

So you never know who you touch. You never know how or when you'll have an impact, or how important your example can be to someone else" (20).