I never wanted to be in movies. In a sense, I'm still a failure because I wanted to be a star on the stage.

The first time I had got an offer to come to Hollywood, I turned it down. I said, "No, I'm an actor of the stage.

I remember little things that break my heart. We were coming out of Michael's house one day, and he noticed my shoelaces were undone. He bent down and tied them. I almost cried. To me, it was such a gesture of love.

I have been trying to create a campaign to have our country make an apology for slavery, for the way that blacks were treated before the Civil War and after the Civil War.

If I have to speak in public, I am terrified.

I went to Hollywood to test for Martha Ivers and I thought I was going to play the part that Van Heflin played.But they wanted me to play the part of Barbara Stanwyck's husband, so I played that. Then when I finished the movie, I went back to Broadway and did another flop.

You know, you have to have some inner philosophy to deal with adversity.