Here's the thing - you can't be careful about what you pick because what looks like on paper is going to be a great script has often turned out to be a disaster, so there's no way to know what's going to work or to pick the right thing.

I also have been called that terrible "N" word straight to my face and not known what to do about it because it was just in like 1993 that someone called me that.

Growing older is not such a big deal for me, despite the fears that older actresses have in Hollywood. When I hit 40, for example, I didn't feel 40 - or whatever that is supposed to feel like.

In Monster's Ball I went nude, which was scary, but I took the chance and that's how I like to approach my career.

First of all, I'm not pretty. I'm not a world class beauty, ladies and gentlemen. I'm just a guy. I was slow going and stuff like that. I was just never that brand of news.

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.

I won't have a traditional marriage; I don't find the value in that anymore. But I am such a hopeless romantic and I really want love and I want a committed relationship, so I am going to reinvent marriage for myself.