Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I grew up in a time when it would never have occurred to anyone to tell me there was anything I couldn't do.
If every American donated five hours a week, it would equal the labor of twenty million full-time volunteers.
If I was doing a talk show, I would do the kind of show that comes on just once a month, with amazing guests.
We have a lot of trans friends. We know lots of people who have been trying to [model]; we know a lot about it.
We're born with success. It is only others who point out our failures, and what they attribute to us as failure.
If you get a little gassy, you've got to let it go. So people used to say to me, 'You're like a whoopee cushion.'
We're here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.
[On her monologue as the thief 'Fontaine':] People always got things. People always want things. So I provide a service.
If you can handle the fact that people are going to be mad at you when you do what you think is right, you'll be alright.
It bums me out tremendously what the church has become, and if it's got me bummed, imagine what Jesus Christ must be feeling.
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.
No matter what you say to yourself, you do want to win. You try to look casual, like you're not thinking, 'oh, please pick me.'
[On writing to Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple:] I told her I would play a Venetian blind, dirt on the floor, anything.
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?
When you are kind to someone in trouble, you hope they'll remember and be kind to someone else. And it'll become like a wildfire.
You know, be an actor because you love to act. Don't be an actor because you think you're going to get famous, because that's luck.
If you read to me I could tell you everything that was read. They didn't know what it was. They knew I wasn't lazy, but what was it?
I'm fighting the label of 'Black' actress simply because it's very limiting in people's eyes, especially people who are making movies.
If you're willing to stand for what you believe in ... you won't need advice from me, because you will be able to handle whatever comes.
I've learned to take time for myself and to treat myself with a great deal of love and respect, because I like me.. I think I'm kind of cool.
Should I be worried about being a slave and being returned to slavery? Because certain things happened in the Constitution that had to change.
It's being willing to walk away that gives you strength and power - if you're willing to accept the consequences of doing what you want to do.
There are times when I haven't been proud of America or really proud. But there have been times that I've been incredibly proud of the country.
We're dealing with old issues that aren't ours. We carry them and we pass them on to those who come after us. I am hoping to crack some of those.
I don't like driving very much. That makes me very unhappy, because I scream a lot in the car, but other than that, life is actually pretty good.
I eat eight bags of chips in one sitting, and then nothing for a day or two. I learned that my body thought it was starving, so it would hold on to fat.
I don't think in terms of failure....I don't feel like anyone outside of me should be setting limitations. People should be encouraged to shoot for the moon.
Sitting at the table during Color Purple and looking up and suddenly realizing I was acting in front of Steven Spielberg, was pretty cool. It was pretty good.
What I am is a humanist before anything - before I'm a Jew, before I'm black, before I'm a woman. And my beliefs are for the human race - they don't exclude anyone.
Thank you, God, because I am lucky. Also let's face it, it turns out I'm black. And I'm having a career quite different from lots of people, so I feel doubly lucky.
When I started, I knew I didn't fit any visual that anyone was going to lie down and take their clothes off about. Work doesn't come to me; I go out and look for it.
In order to sell in all the different places where medical marijuana is legal, you have to build a facility and grow in the state you're selling in, so it's daunting.
Really, darling, it's a no-brainer. You know, I understand not everybody is for gay marriage. But if you're not for gay marriage, don't marry a gay person. That's what I say
I have witnessed things the ancients would have called miracles, but they are not miracles. They are the products of someone's dream, and they happen as the result of hard work.
The only argument you can make against having Confederate flag as spectacularly shown as it is around the south is the Nazis. I mean, it would be like having the swastika flag...
When I was doing ensemble theater and comedy work, I felt I had some talents. But when I started doing my shows in Berkeley and found that I could be funny on my own, I was shocked.
The people who can be helping to make movies that have blacks and Latinos and women and all that - that movie doesn't come to you. Because the idea is that there's no place for black movies.
I had such a good time doing that movie [Sister Act 2]. My daughter's in that movie. It was a fun film to do. And it shocked a lot of people, because they loved it, and they take it with them.
I am the American Dream. I am the epitome of what the American Dream basically said. It said you could come from anywhere and be anything you want in this country. That's exactly what I've done.
My mother's great. She has the major looks. She could stop you from doing anything, through a closed door even, with a single look. Without saying a word, she has that power to rip out your tonsils.
I'd like everyone to imagine a world where you get a job as Tom, and then the next day you're Tina. Imagine you're in the world where you love what you do, but people say that you can't be who you are.
Taliban-esque: Any behavior that imposes the beliefs of one person on everyone else. Conversations with the Taliban-esque are impossible. They aren't even conversations. With them, it's my way or no way.
You know what? I think the American people are a little pissed, and I think they're pissed at both parties - I think they're really pissed at both parties - and it will be reflected during election time.
And I don't believe that I have to stay on one side of the fence or the other. 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.
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?
I have a production company, and we work with reality TV producers 44 Blue. They asked if we'd like to get involved. When they explained that it was the first transgender modeling agency, we said, "Yeah, of course!"
All I really want to do is just keep acting, and some of it will stink, and some of it will be really good, and maybe when I'm 85 and presenting an Oscar like Bette Davis did, I can look back and say, 'It was okay, I did all right.'
I believe that parts of people like John Garfield and Moms Mabley, the parts of them that I needed to be able to do what I'm doing, came into me. There's a very nice feeling that there are many, many spirits inside of me looking after me . . .
I'd like somebody to get rid of the death tax. That's what I want. I don't want to get taxed just because I died. I just don't think it's right. If I give something to my kid, I already paid the tax. Why should I have to pay it again because I died?