Don't take yourself too seriously. Know when to laugh at yourself, and find a way to laugh at obstacles that inevitably present themselves.

I think a smart person today realizes that you have to be part of the art films that are done just for the sake of the art.

I never put myself in that box of you're an Oscar winner so you can only do this or that. That's one award, one night, and it does not define my career or it does not define me as an artist. I never wanted to get put in that Oscar box because that's a lonely place to be.

I was black growing up in an all-white neighborhood, so I felt like I just didn't fit in. Like I wasn't as good as everybody else, or as smart, or whatever.

Beauty is not just physical.

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

My whole life I've had the fear that I was going to be abandoned.