Any actor will tell you, as soon as your ego and your vanity come into the mix, it destroys your work. Completely destroys it.

It's harder to play a quiet character because everything happens in their stream of consciousness. They're thinking and feeling the world, but they're saying very little, so then you have to communicate it through your behavior.

I really wanted to show [in "fences"] a marriage that is working. Not perfect, but working.

I am not a morning person, but I always work out - always.

The internal sexism within womanhood is very ­predominant in Hollywood, because we all want to be ­successful. There's a plug to it: You all have to be skinny! You all have to be pretty! You all have to be likable, because that's the ­formula that works. On an ­executive level. On a power level. And it's not always the same working with black people, because of the internalized racism. The colorism.

The only thing that separates women of color from everyone else is opportunity.

I can't deal with actors! I can't deal with myself. We're neurotic and miserable... I love doing what I'm doing, but while I'm doing it, I'm miserable.