She was born Sarah Breedlove on a plantation in Delta, Louisiana, where her parents had been slaves. At 14, she married to get a home of her own, to get away from a cruel brother-in-law with whom she was living. At 17, she had her only child, A'Lelia, who I'm named after.
You know the AME Church has a history of empowering black people and having an international outlook. So it was the women of the church who began to give Sarah Breedlove an image of herself as something other than an illiterate washerwoman, and she wanted to make her life better, and her daughter's life better.
Growing up my mother played Sarah Vaughan and Nat Cole in the house regularly.
I have a big problem with people who glamorize dumbness and demonize education and intellect. And I'm giving a pretty good description of Sarah Palin right now.
I started with ballet and then my cousin Sarah introduced me to her tap teachers.
When I was at 'SNL,' I would constantly get in arguments, 'Why aren't we more political? We're not going after Bush.' Then look what happened - that Sarah Palin season, they were on fire. It was about something.
I do have to give it up for Sarah Palin on one account. She is brave.
I'm a working actor, and I'm really appreciative to be a working actor, but it's another level when you're a working actor with the likes of Sarah Paulson and Angela Bassett.
My literary heroes were mostly women writers and thinkers - Joy Williams, Joan Didion, Anne Sexton, June Jordan, Sarah Schulman, Audre Lorde, Cherrie Moraga, Christa Wolf - and much of this writing was political as well as literary.
I mean, you make a movie with Sarah Palin in it, you get great ratings. That's easy. I know how to get ratings: get Sarah Palin.
