I discovered that joy is not the negation of pain, but rather acknowledging the presence of pain and feeling happiness in spite of it.

It's in understanding yourself deeply that you can lend yourself to another person's circumstances and another person's experience.

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.

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

I've had somebody say, "I want you at my wedding, but I don't want you to pull focus, so wear jeans!" Losing my anonymity is something that's proving to be very challenging.... It's good for your soul to walk around unnoticed; there's so much you can't do when everybody knows who you are. And I so miss those little things.

As human beings, what makes us able to empathize with people is a connection that is not necessarily understood mentally.

You can’t eat beauty. It doesn’t feed you.