My guiltiest pleasure is reading a novel with a glass of wine. I love to read voraciously. I always have. And I love to lose myself in a good book.

The biggest challenges are always getting into the rooms that you need to get into and having people open to the types of stories that I want to tell. And I feel that just being a female director and doing that is a big deal in this country. On my third movie I worked with a French DP. I asked him has he ever worked with a woman director before? He said in France a third of directors are women; so you can’t avoid them. So I realized that the US is behind.

I wanted to pay homage to someone who was such an important literary figure in my life. I think Langston Hughes would be proud of the picture Black Nativity, yet it's a contemporary story about a family living in Harlem. I named the lead character Langston, put a little bit of poetry in there, and some Langston Hughes quotes, and, of course, his stage play, Black Nativity.

I've come to really believe that I have something to offer as a filmmaker, that goes beyond what I had to offer as an actress and maybe this is what I'm meant to do.

I don't over-think my existence. I'm a very imperfect person, like most of us are. I'm also a very busy person. I have a family. I have a career. I'm a professor at NYU. I have a full life for which I feel grateful every day.

Honestly, I do spend most of my time between films trying to get the next one made.

My guiltiest pleasure is reading a novel with a glass of wine. I love to read voraciously. I always have. And I love to lose myself in a good book.