I never thought I was pretty. I couldn't even put on eyelashes or makeup.

I was kind of a bouncy kid. I used to roller-skate into the sides of cars.

Struggle and survival, losing and winning, doesn't matter. It's entering the race that counts. You enter, you can win, you can lose .... but it's all about entering the race.

I never went in thinking, "You're an African-American woman, so you're never going to win." I was just in career doing beauty pageants for the experience, and to show my brains and talent and help break stereotypes. It wasn't like, "Oh, I'll become a star. I'm beautiful." I never thought I was pretty. I couldn't even put on eyelashes or makeup. When you come from an environment that's military, and they don't stress that topic of aesthetics or beauty pageants and makeup, there are a lot of things you just don't have that city girls have.

I've never considered myself to be beautiful, and I still don't.

My grandfather was the first feminist in my life. He taught me if a woman can do something, a man will respect her.

We have to have films about action and violence and special effects. That's the sad part, but you know what? It's not me doing it.