A degree on the wall, without labels on your back, is nothing.

Tyler Perry's brand is faith, family and this whole thing that I've built, while my company, 34th Street Films, is like Disney's Touchstone. We can do anything. People don't know what to expect from me yet.

We don't have to wait for people to green light our projects, we can create our own intersections.

My father who was there in the house, he wasn't at all a role model. And my mother, who was trying to protect me from him as best she could, she took me everywhere with her, which gave me a tremendous amount of sensitivity to the things women go through.

I don't think the dreams die - I think that people give up. I think it gets too hard.

I look at the stories that Spike Lee tells... Great stories. Great director, great storyteller.

If you don't want my God here, you don't want me here either. God has been too good to me to go and try to sell out to get some money...