Black people are achievers; we're survivors.
They were looking for someone to play the neighbor of the Jeffersons. I thought it would be a nice trip to Los Angeles. When you get a call like that, you don't expect much to come of it.
I was raised in a very, very loving household. I had quite unusual parents, and my father has always been my hero.
I don't like that putdown: that when you're trying to achieve, you're trying to be white. That makes me mad.
I was very much a part of the civil rights era, so, of course, my fantasy was to marry some outstanding black gentleman, a leader - someone like Martin Luther King who was doing something for black people.
I wish there was more for minorities than sitcoms. I'd like to see a soap opera about blacks. People don't live in isolation anymore.
I felt Helen Willis was in tune with the situation of a black woman married to a white man, and she had no problem being black.
