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 only when you risk failure that you discover things. When you play it safe, you're not expressing the utmost of your human experience.

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.

It's great to have something to dress up for. You know, I spent three years in slacks at drama school, so now I like putting a dress on.

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 had this vivid image of myself at the age of 60 looking back on my life and truly regretting the fact that I hadn't tried to be an actor

I definitely intend to create my own work in the future so that we don't have to keep saying we don't have work for black women. But right now I don't know what's next. I hope that there are more opportunities to come my way.