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

I do not love to work out, but if I stick to exercising every day and put the right things in my mouth, then my diabetes just stays in check.

I think it's always best to be who you are.

What's hardest for me to swallow is when there is a love story, say, with a really high-profile male star and there's no reason I can't play the part. They say, 'Oh, we love Halle, we just don't want to go black with this part.'

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.

I knew that I was a good writer in high school and won awards, and I was the editor of my school newspaper. So I knew that I was a good writer and I wanted to somehow capitalize and sort of utilize a talent that I thought I had.

I'm learning to accept the lack of privacy as the real downer in my profession.