What excites me? Had you asked me that question a few years ago, the answer would’ve rolled right off my tongue. Today, I think it's moving and uplifting my audience. Having them get it and go with it. That excites me.

My friend Madea has "attitude" that comes with wisdom. Back in our teens and twenties, we thought we knew everything and made all those foolish mistakes. Then, when we got a little older, at thirty, we started getting these flashes of light, revelations of what a great and lucky thing it is that we didn't get caught doing those stupid things back then. Around forty, if we are lucky, we stop lying to ourselves. Fifty and above, we've run out of patience for foolishness. Take me to the bottom line.

I think that people think when you have money that your problems go away and everything's solved, and it's great and wonderful. You're a perfect human being.

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

I am so proud to be from New Orleans and to be one of those people who had been displaced. I wasn't there during that time, but that's where I come from, that kind of poverty, and I'm very, very proud of that because it's given me my history.

Fear is a sprit that really can stop you from living.

It's so important to forgive people for their wrongs in your own life because every bit of it was for a reason-it was to form the person that you are.