I think I've evolved into someone pretty confident - in myself and in my skin.

I don't see a white woman. I see a black woman, even though my mother is white. Knowing that has made my life easier, I think.

After my divorce, I was struggling to find my own voice. Through reading, I gained my power back.

Throughout my career I have been talked out of things I wanted to do, and when I look back, I think I should have followed my instincts.

The first step is clearly defining what it is you're after, because without knowing that, you'll never get it.

But I just don't think it's an abyss of nothingness [after death] and that we fall off and that our journey stops. I think it's circular and we go and we go and we go. I know that there are civilizations that I think are way more sophisticated than we are and I think more sophisticated civilizations lived before us.

I believe that you can experience very profound moments of change in life...I never would have become an actress if I hadn't dropped out of high school. As a teenager, I was so driven to pursue my dreams that I made a decision to quit school at 17 so I could find my voice as an actress and eventually the profession embraced me.