And my one prayer to God, the miracle worker, was that I would wake up lighter-skinned.

You fail, and then what? Life goes on. It's only when you risk failure that you discover things.

Your value is in yourself; the other stuff will come and go.

I would love to have a career that's governed by the material; I always want to be part of stories that I feel are worthwhile.

The game of chess is a metaphor for life... it teaches you strategy and it teaches you the value of knowing where you are, where you want to get to and what obstacles are in the way that you need to navigate in order to get there.

I went to an all-boys high school, and they accepted girls in only the two A.P. classes. They had these archaic rules: for example, girls couldn't wear makeup. I found it so outrageous that an all-boys school could tell girls to not wear makeup! So I went on a campaign. I got a petition signed and everything. If a girl wants to wear makeup to boost confidence, why not?

Every time I overcome an obstacle, it feels like success. Sometimes the biggest ones are in our head - the saboteurs that tell us we can't.