Part of being an artist is that you are always concerned you don't have what it takes. It keeps us honest.

Whoopi Goldberg looked like me, she had hair like mine, she was dark like me. I'd been starved for images of myself. I'd grown up watching a lot of American TV.

You win an Oscar, and immediately people ask how you feel. So you don't have time to actually feel anything because you have to generate a response. And then some of the feelings you have are so intimate and visceral, words don't really do them justice.

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

I grew up watching foreign programs - American, English, Mexican, and very little Kenyan. 'The Color Purple' was the first time I saw people who looked like me.

What's becoming very obvious to me is that fashion is art.

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