Anyone can write a story based on the kind of horror where you see a guy in car and then there's the bad guy in the back seat. It's infantile to rely on that for telling a story. That's like going to bed and thinking there's a monster under your bed. It's silly.

My boyfriend keeps telling me I've got to own things. So first I bought this car. And then he told me I oughta get a house. 'Why a house?' 'Well you gotta have a place to park the car.'

I mean I'm in the business of storytelling not message making.

I also believe that government has no business telling us how we should live our lives. I think our lifestyle choices should be left up to us. What we do in our private lives is none of the government's business. That position rules out the Republican Party for me.

My father always taught by telling stories about his experiences. His lessons were about morality and art and what insects and birds and human beings had in common. He told me what it meant to be a man and to be a Black man. He taught me about love and responsibility about beauty and how to make gumbo.

I'm always suspicious of really beautiful women telling us we shouldn't be worried about beauty.

Blanche talks about aging and why should she be considered poor because physical beauty is transitory and fading and she has such richness of the soul. I think that speech is so beautiful and so telling and so true.

My mother always called me an ugly weed so I never was aware of anything until I was older. Plain girls should have someone telling them they are beautiful. Sometimes this works miracles.

When I drank I had a very different attitude towards my playing. It was sloppier but I kind of liked it that way. It was like the alcohol was telling my mind what to do.

After the first miscarriage I tried to take the attitude that it was my body's way of telling me that this pregnancy wasn't meant to be.