I do my best work when I feel conviction to say something through the character I play. Always I want to have integrity and not compromise that.

I never, in my wildest dreams, could I have thought that the first role I get out of school would lead to an Oscar nomination.

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

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

You have to allow for the impossible to be possible.

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

There is no shame in black beauty.