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.

We, as human beings, have the capacity for extreme cruelty.

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.

I think beauty is an expression of love.

You can't eat beauty, it doesn't sustain you. What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion, for yourself and those around you. That kind of beauty inflamed the heart and merchants the soul.

I have a very ostrich mentality. I feel like I have my head in the sand so no one can see me.