I am not a hugely religious person, but I believe that there is a oneness with everything. And because there is this oneness, it is possible that my mother is the principal reason for my life.

I had chosen to use my work as a reflection of my values.

But my dad also was a remarkable man, a good person, a principled individual, a man of integrity.

I didn't run into racism until we moved to Nassau when I was ten and a half, but it was vastly different from the kind of horrendous oppression that black people in Miami were under when I moved there at 15. I found Florida an antihuman place.

I did not go into the film business to be symbolized as someone else's vision of me.

I am the me I choose to be.

So it's been kind of a long road, but it was a good journey altogether.