I went to an all-boys high school, and they accepted girls in only the two A.P. classes. They had these archaic rules: for example, girls couldn't wear makeup. I found it so outrageous that an all-boys school could tell girls to not wear makeup! So I went on a campaign. I got a petition signed and everything. If a girl wants to wear makeup to boost confidence, why not?

It doesn't escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else's.

To this day, I love eating steak tacos before going to the red carpets.

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

What I've learned from myself is that I don't have to be anybody else. Myself is good enough.

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.

What I will say is that what I have learned for myself is that I don’t have to be anybody else; and that myself is good enough; and that when I am being true to that self, then I can avail myself to extraordinary thingsYou have to allow for the impossible to be possible.