"I am so blessed to be a part of a generation like this because we are constantly raising the bar and pushing the boundaries of what we can do. Keep striving to do what you wanna do – it's your life."

"When I’m out in the world on tour with my books, I’m not selling books. I don’t need that money. Writing these books was giving these kids the knowledge that no matter how big the fire is, they can come through."

"We celebrities are human beings. We hurt. We get our hearts broken. We break hearts. It all comes back to who you are. Who am I today? Am I living on purpose? Or am I clawing at the void? Will I walk in my joy today and acknowledge the color purple? I’ve got jacaranda trees around my house. Three months out of the year, it’s purple. I lay here in this plethora of purple and I give thanks."

"There is no limit to what you can reach and what you can strive for."

"A lot of people will say don't compare, but I have never met anybody that doesn't – it's just a normal human thing that we do."

"Heavy is the head that wears the crown. I know, because I wear one."

"Especially being a young Black girl, we are often overlooked. We don't get the respect that we should get when it comes to our hard work and changing the narrative. At times you can feel it and you just have to remember what you bring to the table. At some point, you can't care what other people think. All we can do is live for ourselves because we are the only people that we know at the end of the day."

"Home for me is about safety and embrace. It’s about shedding all the external masks that we have to wear out in the world. Home is really about beauty, safety, history. My friendships are home for me. My family is home for me. It’s an energetic connection that creates a sense of safety and groundedness, where I don’t have to wear any mask. I can just be myself."

"I don’t live my life for other people."

"People don’t want to be told that what they’re doing might not be the right thing or might not make everybody happy. But I am somebody who – I don’t just go along to get along."

"But what I would prefer is that I’m the poster child for living my life on my terms. And that there’s a version of that for everyone."

"I didn’t see enough examples of different versions of how a woman can find happiness and joy and power and sensuality, sexuality, all of that, without it being through the lens of how I’m seen by a man."

"I’ve always been a person who speaks up. I can’t help it. Sometimes the practice for me is – perhaps the exercise today is to not speak up."

"I tried being small and feeling things in little ways. It took me a long time to get to know myself, to accept myself, and even on some days to really like and love myself. And then it took me a whole other load of years to have the courage to actually live in the world as that person. And it’s been trial and error, chewing on ground glass."

"But when you are a king, you must adhere to the music of the symphony that’s being played."

"It’s actually a real honour to get older. Not everybody has that honour, with everything going on in this country, with all of the violence and the children that don’t get to live that long…"

"I want to be in a relationship with myself as I am. I don’t want to be fighting with an image that I put out that I can’t keep up with."

"It’s been a hard-earned journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance."

"I can do what I want, when I want, how I want. Go where I want. Sleep in the temperature I want to sleep in. I have a freedom that’s overwhelming sometimes. I love being free."

"But then when you hit high school you start interacting with the patriarchy."

"But you know, I’ve always been excited about getting older. I love getting wiser and having more experience. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I have vulnerabilities and discomforts around my age, but trying to pretend or hide the things that I feel insecure or uncomfortable about doesn’t make them any less comfortable, you know?"

"I met a representative who wanted to try me out a little bit and told me, 'I'm going to send you out on auditions,'" she recalled. "And that person introduced me to Blake Lively's parents."

"When they became managers, I was already going to their acting school, and I would babysit Blake to attend school because I couldn't afford it."

"Sometimes, my mom would bake goods for them if they had a big party."

"I was always playing with her...then putting her to bed, and that's when the acting classes would start"

"If it weren't for Blake Lively's parents, I probably wouldn't be here today, They were highly instrumental in getting me started."

""Castle" Actor Tamala Jones Revealed What It Was Really Like To Babysit Blake LivelyBuzz Feed, 26 March 2023 by Larry Fitzmaurice"

"You have to let your history and your process and your longevity speak for you."

"I’m done shrinking. I’m going to grow. I’m going to grow taller than you. I’m going to grow so tall you won’t be able to climb me."

"Life is not just short, it's precious and so I am just being really intentional about being present"

"London, England you were a dream! Nothing like getting the chance to travel with family. If you get the chance to go. Just do it! The lessons, the respect for different cultures, and cuisine are life-learning experiences the kids will never forget. Love my family. Forever grateful. ❤️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿."

"My mom was always very clear about being humble, about not believing your own hype and having an identity outside of being an actress"

"I was like, I look so crazy I just have to sit in this, and let people think what they want to think, and there’s nothing I can do about it"

"But I remember when I was praying, I felt a peace come over me, and I was like, ‘this is an answer to a prayer"

"loving and treating people with respect regardless, and never letting how people treat you change the integrity of who you want to be. I think in this season especially, I'm learning to live again in a different way"

"I didn’t realize it at the time, but my concern with what other people thought about me was such a thing that I had to go through something like that where I literally had no other option, and I had to find my joy and my peace regardless of what everyone was thinking"

"I had to be put in that place in order for me to get as free as I am now"

"It's just about being present and being really thankful and just taking everything in as it's coming. I think that's the biggest thing for me in the season [is] just being present and every single day and being really thankful for my quality of life and the people I get to do life with"

"I've learned that not everybody's going to get you or like you, and that's okay. And knowing who your tribe is and being really thankful for that, and knowing sometimes they're not your tribe — that's okay too"

"Nobody can outwork her in the industry."

"It's nothing that I would have ever chosen, and when I realized that it was happening, I was devastated. I was like, 'This is me, Lord. I did everything that I could do to the best of my ability. I don't understand why I did all these things, and then this is my end result.'"

"Her work ethic is incredible"

"I can still change people’s minds about me, and I don’t look at that as a bad thing. I look at that as a purpose thing."

"I mean, she understood the story. quated by (Tonesa Welch)"

"Smallwood told CNN Fox has “so many skill sets that contribute to the success of any project.”"

"I think that by her being a woman director, it just brought so much,"

"Growing up, me and Christina Milian and Zoe Saldaña were up for a lot of the same things. But also, being Black women, we kind of merged. We could be anywhere between 32 to 43. I kind of feel like we’re all somewhere around the same age of 37."

"To see how they make someone comfortable enough to confess with their body language, that was the one thing that was the most interesting to me, was how you can tell when the detective goes in for ‘the kill.’ When they (the detective) get comfortable with someone and make them feel like they’re a friend."

"In Missing, we just kind of caught criminals. We would get them, arrest them, and turn them over. But hosting The Interrogation Room, going behind the scenes, showing how they build a case, how they get confessions, that was all totally new."