I was black growing up in an all-white neighborhood, so I felt like I just didn't fit in. Like I wasn't as good as everybody else, or as smart, or whatever.
I guess you could say I have bad taste in men. But I no longer feel the need to be someone's wife.
I think I've evolved into someone pretty confident - in myself and in my skin.
I'm a much better mother at 46... than if I were like, 21 or 25.
I always had to prove myself through my actions. Be a cheerleader. Be class president. Be the editor of the newspaper.
By the time I left school, I had a lot of tenacity.
My mother helped me identify myself the way the world would identify me. Bloodlines didn't matter as much as how I would be perceived.
Having a baby takes so much from you. It's the most glorious thing you'll ever do, but the aftermath is not so glorious!
I think we have become obsessed with beauty and personally I'm really saddened by the way women mutilate their faces today in search of that.
I'm not done with love, but I refuse to settle.
People win 'Oscars', and then it seems like they fall off the planet. And that's partly because a huge expectation walks in the room and sits right down on top of your head.
Every story about me is so heavy and dramatic. That's not how I do life. But that's the impression people have, and that's what keeps getting reiterated. As if I'm still stuck in all the muck of the past. And I am so not.
Career is important, but nothing really supersedes my roles as a mother.
Being a mother is probably the most important thing in my life right now.
I'm not one of these actresses like, 'Okay, where's the camera? Is it here? Is it here?' I don't even ask the questions because I don't really want to know. I like not performing for a camera but giving it my best every single time whether you're close or whether you're far.
I do not love to work out, but if I stick to exercising every day and put the right things in my mouth, then my diabetes just stays in check.
People win Oscars, and then it seems like they fall off the planet. And that's partly because a huge expectation walks in the room and sits right down on top of your head. The moment I won the Oscar, I felt the teardown the very next day.
A person's self-esteem has nothing to do with how she looks.
I archive a lot of my clothes and have them wrapped up and in boxes. I call them 'little tombs' and keep them in a storage space... I would never get rid of the dress I wore on the night I won my Oscar. When I die, someone can have it, but not a minute before!
