You see all the young girls, and they're so skinny. I actually don't even twirl anymore. They say, "Twirl, let us see your back." I just tell 'em, "I do not twirl. If you want to see my back, when I walk away, you can take a picture of it. I'm not twirling." You know, I twirled once, and I almost fell. It looks ridiculous. So I said I'm not twirling anymore.

If you're a boxer, you want to get the ring with a Mike Tyson or Muhammad Ali type. When you're acting, you want to get in with Meryl Streep, and that's what I did.

I needed to make my wig ogg because I no longer wanted to apologize for who I am

Let me tell you something: The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.

Relationships change us and make us grow.

I would love to be remembered as a person who used her life to inspire others in any way, shape or form.

I sort of feel like that's the most revolutionary thing we can do with our narrative for me as Black people is to show that we are just like you.