Someone called all the newspapers in New York and told them I'd died. I've been told by almost everyone it was an ex-wife - I've had a few so it's hard to pinpoint which one - but who knows for sure?

To be diagnosed was the hardest thing because I didn't know what they were talking about... And the doctor said, Don't worry, in three months you'll know. So I went about my business and then, one day, it jumped me. I couldn't get up... Your muscles trick you; they did me.

My grandmother used to discipline me, I mean, beat my ass, and I deserved them, too.

No, I'm not dying, and I sure... ain't dead.

You can have a film and have 200 white people working on it, and nobody finds anything wrong with that. But if you insist on having a black crew, all of a sudden there's something wrong.

It's been a struggle for me because I had a chance to be white and refused.

You have to have lived some life. You've got to have paid some dues.