I would like to believe that most people don't get married anticipating divorce. When I reached that crossroad, I felt like such a failure. After years of therapy together, I realized that staying together was emotionally destructive.

You always make a film with the hope that all types of people will want to see your work and that it doesn't matter about your color, but unfortunately it still does.

My mother was a single mom, and most of the women I know are strong.

Especially in this industry, women challenge men much more now because we're saying, 'We can do it, too.'

I can work inside the boundaries of Erika Murphy, or whoever the character is. It's fun to create somebody that's not you, that doesn't exist.

And, for example, like, when you're having the conversation with your child about getting their driver's license. Well, a white family - their biggest fear is just that you're driving safely and that they're minding the rules of the road, whereas a black family - their biggest fear is that their child is going to get pulled over and treated unfairly for a reason that they won't understand.

"Southland" was not written for a black woman.