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 have the strangest time to get cast in anything. 'Ghost' was the same thing. Six months I had to wait for them to decide they had seen everybody possible. Why not? What limits me? I'm black? Oh, am I black?

I used my imagination to make the grass whatever color I wanted it to be.

[On her monologue as the thief 'Fontaine':] People always got things. People always want things. So I provide a service.

I don't have pet peeves like some people. I have whole kennels of irritation.

Most of all, I dislike this idea nowadays that if you're a black person in America, then you must be called African-American. Listen, I've visited Africa, and I've got news for everyone: I'm not an African.

I grew up in a time when it would never have occurred to anyone to tell me there was anything I couldn't do.