[On writing to Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple:] I told her I would play a Venetian blind, dirt on the floor, anything.

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?

Actors have no color. That's the art form.

I dig being a mother.

Did you know that we are the only people in the United States who have to have their voting rights okayed every couple of years?

I don't believe that there is any good career move or bad career move. I believe there are only the things that make me happy.

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.