Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

I don't have any beauty shop memories. I remember the barber shop.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

I was gifted at birth with this talent, and I've tried to honor it all my life. And I did - through hell and storms and tsunamis and earthquakes. I've been through too much not to know that giving back is everything.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

America has a relationship with Bobby and Whitney.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

You are a black goddess when you come out the salon.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

I think my performance in 'What's Love Got to Do With It' was powerful. I was so unafraid and confident. You know, it was the first mother of black Hollywood. I was Tina Turner's mama. That's what started it all. I had fallen in love right before that movie, and I had absolutely no fear in me.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

I've been burn when it comes to my hair that it ain't no joke.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

But a true diva has dismissed that drama. A true diva's heart is open, and she's ready to play by her own rules - rules that are gentle and kind.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

I had not starred in an independent film and it's about a woman who owned a hair salon.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

My friends were dropping like flies, and the government wasn't doing anything. You don't watch an entire generation take water hoses and dogs on the front line during the '60s or watch another generation perish from AIDS and then get to drive around in big cars and do nothing.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

I've been keeping a journal since I was in the seventh grade.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

Creativity does not stop just because you're over 50. Hollywood spits female actresses out after age 29, but you don't stop creating. If anything, you become wiser and even better.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

I want to co-produce again.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

Saturday night is when my hair would be fixed up and that was my memory.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

I'm in the moment. I'm always in the moment of life.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

Pay attention to your friends; pay attention to that cousin that jumps up on the picnic table at the family reunion and goes a little too 'nutty,' you know what I mean? Pay attention to that aunt that's down in the basement that never comes upstairs. We have to pay attention to our friends, pay attention to your family, and offer a hand.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

I've had a wonderful life. The reason it's been a wonderful life is I've made conscious choices to get up, to basically love life.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

A diva is someone who pretends to know who she is and looks fabulous doing it.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

I know what mental illness looks like, and I know that if a person is not ready to get help, they won't.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

I had been a hurricane all my life. And that was, of course, because I was bipolar and did not know it. And I was - you know, the mania took control. When you're on stage and when you're performing, you're heightened, and it's an extreme.

Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis

As you grow, you stretch. You become more, and you have more to give if you've lived and learned and experienced. And I try to stay healthy. I eat as healthy as I can. I drink lots of water, and I work out just about every day of my life.