I used to enjoy doing silly walks on the street with my friends. Like, you know, you're walking, and then you break out in something completely ridiculous, to kind of spook out the person walking by you. I can't really do that anymore.

I've always had an involved imagination.

Beautiful people have many advantages, but so do friendly people.

You have to allow for the impossible to be possible.

What I've learned from myself is that I don't have to be anybody else. Myself is good enough.

When I was in the second grade, one of my teachers said, "Where are you going to find a husband? How are you going to find someone darker than you?" I was mortified. I remember seeing a commercial where a woman goes for an interview and doesn't get the job. Then she puts a cream on her face to lighten her skin, and she gets the job! This is the message: that dark skin is unacceptable. I definitely wasn't hearing this from my immediate family - my mother never said anything to that effect - but the voices from the television are usually much louder than the voices of your parents.

I never, in my wildest dreams, could I have thought that the first role I get out of school would lead to an Oscar nomination.