For some reason, all artists have self-esteem issues.
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.
You've got to vote for someone. It's a shame, but it's got to be done.
Who amongst us doesn't want to be a hero?
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.
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
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.
[On lightweight movies:] Fun movies. They were never meant to cure cancer, only to take away the mind.
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?
My family is Jewish, Buddhist, Baptist and Catholic. I don't believe in man-made religions.
I had gone through several crazy headache bouts, and I realized that part of the reason I was having them was because I wasn't smoking marijuana. When my daughter gave me a vape pen, I realized that I could relegate it to where I needed it to be. And I would talk to my older grandkids in their 20s, and they'd say they use weed to stop cramps. That's when I really started to investigate and asked the question, "Is anybody doing this?" And they gave me that horrifying answer: "niche market".
I won once [an Oscar]. So it can't be that racist.
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?
I say if you're worried, vote smart. Vote smart.
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?
We have a lot of trans friends. We know lots of people who have been trying to [model]; we know a lot about it.
[On writing to Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple:] I told her I would play a Venetian blind, dirt on the floor, anything.
When I was 9 years old, Star Trek came on.
Most women do not have [abortions] with some sort of party going on. It is the hardest decision that a woman ever has to make . . . One of the reasons we've had to make this decision is because so many women were found bleeding, dead, with hangers in their bodies because they were doing it themselves. The idea of this was to make it safe and clean - that was the reason the law came into effect.
Did you know children are dying because of AIDS. Missing the medicines that prevent transmission from mother to child. Missing the protection from parents teachers and role models that can teach them about the danger, and keep them safe from sexual exploitation. Children are missing your support. Unite for children. Unite against AIDS.
If I was doing a talk show, I would do the kind of show that comes on just once a month, with amazing guests.
I grew up in a time when it would never have occurred to anyone to tell me there was anything I couldn't do.
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.'
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.
The Africans know I'm not an African. I'm an American.
