Yes, you can have art films about the triumph of the human spirit and all of that, but you'll have it done with a big-budget icon with a $20 million salary. You'll have Julia Roberts, you'll have Robert Redford, you'll have Russell Crowe doing those films, because if they're going to cost $90 million, they're going to make that movie for a public that's very large and mainstream. They're not going to make it for three or four million black people.

It's the best honor when someone wants to use as their professional title the name of a character that you portrayed.

The African-American community is not monolithic. It's liberal and conservative.

I felt beauty was a magnet for abuse, and I had suffered greatly for it.

Out of necessity comes genius.

Me, sexy? I'm just plain ol' beans and rice.

Oh, there's going to be debate because you're dealing with the Bible and religion is supposed to be separate from state and that to me is already a conflict before it even hits the gay issue.