What I am is a humanist before anything - before I'm a Jew, before I'm black, before I'm a woman. And my beliefs are for the human race - they don't exclude anyone.

If you can handle the fact that people are going to be mad at you when you do what you think is right, you'll be alright.

I'm fighting the label of 'Black' actress simply because it's very limiting in people's eyes, especially people who are making movies.

I fear waking up one morning and finding out my life was all for nothing. We're here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark. When you're kind to someone in trouble, you hope they remember and are kind to someone else and so on. Soon it will be like a wildfire.

[The original Sister Act] is running all over the world now, on-stage as a musical. It lives!

Sometimes experience trumps assumption.

Well, one of the things we felt was missing from the greater conversation is that transgender people have been living and working in America for years...People may think it's a "new" thing; it's not...So we wanted to show not just the political side, which is what you see with Caitlyn Jenner. And not the other side with Laverne Cox, who's great.