There are people that regardless of what it is, if it's something that's stressful, whatever it may be, they don't eat, they lose a lot of weight, a divorce, they get real thin. I'm the opposite.

I always knew that I could go deep. How deep? I don't know. But it always seems that with each character I take on, I'm challenged to go deeper than the last time, and then again deeper than the last time. This is the deepest I've ever been asked to dive. And to see how deep I actually went for this, and that I wasn't afraid to go there in order to give Tyler exactly what he envisioned for the character, which was pretty deep, that's what I discovered about myself.

I still have certain goals that I want. Grammies... Other awards... an Oscar one day.

My parents were strict. They weren't as strict on me as they were with the others, but my mother didn't want us to get on anyone's nerves... Go to someone else's house and drive their parents crazy. Another thing was they didn't want us to get into a lot of things that a lot of kids - if they're not careful - can slip into.

I'm convinced that we Black women possess a special indestructible strength that allows us to not only get down, but to get up, to get through, and to get over.

I kinda see everyone as competition. I'm a very competitive person. But I think that's good. Competition is great. And as long as it's friendly and not a malicious thing, then I think it's cool.

We're all driven to premieres or nightclubs and seen the rope separating those who can enter and those who can't. Well, there's also velvet rope we have inside of us, keeping others from knowing our feelings.