Every African-American I know has two faces. There's the face that we have for ourselves and the face we put on for white America for the places we have to get to.

America is fickle. You never know what they're going to go for.

I'm in a great place because I trust people behind the camera as I go off, and I still go back to my day job and do film.

I came to Hollywood to write and found out I don't have the attention span.

I believe in life that you know that everything prepares you for the next thing - whether it's a hit, whether it's not a hit, whether it's a... your failures are your accomplishments because it makes you prepared for whatever it is that you are going to do next.

That's the gift 'Precious' has given me. You really think you're telling a story about a fat black girl, and only fat black girls will understand it, and then you realize we're all Precious.

I'm a filmmaker. I'm always searching for the truth in everything I do. I demand it from my writing partner and my crew, actors, and so hopefully, we're making people think.

Rarely do celebrities and actors speak up for what they believe in.

It's hard for me to accept love. I wish I could lie to you and tell you that it's easy for me, but it's not.