"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.'"

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

"It took me a long time to understand that God didn’t do divorce"

"I loved watching some 48 Hours, some Dateline, I love a good whodunit just like everybody else does! Just trying to figure out how that simple piece of hair, or blood drop, or footprint can help solve a crime."

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

"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."

"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.”"

"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."

"I figured out how to set myself apart and create my own name and really figure out what that meant."

"You don’t always have to take yourself so seriously all of the time. It still should be a joyful experience in making music. You can definitely hear that in my album. And I really learned that you should seize the moment; you should be present in the moment. It was just a great time musically for me. I evolved so much during Opera Noir, during my album, and it’s just so apparent in the music, in the delivery and the execution of it all. So I’m proud of it."

"You don’t always need all of the bells and the whistles. I learned in my life, throughout my journey, that I’m enough. I don’t need all of the extras. I just live my truth, and as long as I do that, I feel like I’ll be good in whatever circumstance. I apply that to life, to my music, to being a young lady out here. I just have to live my truth and know that it’s okay to rock on my own vibration, because I’m me. I try to stand by that code, especially as a young Black woman in this industry. I try to walk the walk and talk the talk."

"You have those times when you’re trying to fit a square into a circle. I’ve been through girl groups. I went through people saying I didn’t have it. I wasn’t special or I didn’t have the look. It really affects a person’s spirit. My manager, she told me that, ‘You are enough.’ And she also told me that it’s okay to be vulnerable. I took it and applied it to my artistry and it really helped me evolve into what you see now."

"I really love to do it all, but singing has opened so many doors for me. And that’s definitely a true passion of mine. It’s a natural, God-given gift. I always find comfort in singing, so singing is number one. Acting, modeling: those go hand-in-hand and I enjoy those too."

"Avoidance is a passive-aggressive way of expressing that you are tired of showing up. Hoping the problem will go away feels like the safest option, but avoidance is a fear-based response. Avoiding a discussion of our expectations doesn’t prevent conflict. It prolongs the inevitable task of setting boundaries."

"We don't naturally fall into perfect relationship; we create them"

"People don’t know what you want. It’s your job to make it clear. Clarity saves relationships."

"healthy people appreciate honesty and don’t abandon us if we say no."

"It’s true that setting boundaries isn’t easy. Paralyzing fear about how someone might respond can easily hold us back. You might play out awkward interactions in your mind and prepare yourself for the worst possible outcome. But trust me: short-term discomfort for a long-term healthy relationship is worth it every time!"

"The hardest thing about implementing boundaries is accepting that some people won’t like, understand, or agree with yours. Once you grow beyond pleasing others, setting your standards becomes easier. Not being liked by everyone is a small consequence when you consider the overall reward of healthier relationships."

"It’s okay for a small child to set limits like not eating meat or feeling uncomfortable around certain people. Parents who respect those boundaries make space for their children to feel safe and loved, and they reinforce the positive habit of articulating needs. When parents ignore these preferences, children feel lonely, neglected, and like their needs don’t matter—and they will likely struggle with boundaries as adults."

"Discomfort is a part of the process."

"You aren't what happened to you."

"understanding breeds grace."

"What you're searching for in others lies within you."

"The most important question you need to answer is What do you want for your life? Bear in mind that what you want might not currently exist in your family."

"The ability to say no to yourself is a gift. If you can resist your urges, change your habits, and say yes to only what you deem truly meaningful, you’ll be practicing healthy self-boundaries. It’s your responsibility to care for yourself without excuses."

"Honesty isn’t betrayal; it’s courage. Stop sugarcoating your experiences and allow the truth to free you. People often misrepresent their relationships and experiences because they’re too afraid to admit what’s true. But denial will keep you from breaking free from your past."

"Resilience is the ability to embrace what happened."

"We can't stop others from neglecting us, but we can stop ignoring ourselves."

"Boundaries will set you free. (Introduction)"

"Tell people what you need."

"we victimize ourselves further when we let our fear prevent us from doing what we need to do."

"Critical thinking is a threat to unhealthy systems, and questions make people think."

"Visit the past, but don't stay there."

"Burnout is a response to unhealthy boundaries."

"It may be hard to just listen without offering advice as people share their problems, but this is often the best support we can give."

"Remember: there is no such thing as guilt-free boundary setting. If you want to minimize (not eliminate) guilt, change the way you think about the process. Stop thinking about boundaries as mean or wrong; start to believe that they’re a nonnegotiable part of healthy relationships, as well as a self-care and wellness practice."

"Be the person you would have looked up to in childhood."

"We simply can’t have a healthy relationship with another person without communicating what’s acceptable and unacceptable to us."

"How they treat you is about who they are, not who you are."

"Fear is not rooted in fact. Fear is rooted in negative thoughts and the story lines in our heads."

"I had to find a way to drop my spirit and allow myself to be more observant of other people. So in the first years of Breaking Bad, I liked to do the method routine because it kept people away from me. No one wanted to come and say hello or chat about the weather. I’m not that chatty guy on set. I’m not the joker. Now after 12 years of playing the character, I can allow myself to be a bit looser."

"I come from a European family. I had a very worldly way of looking at humanity and people and culture and religion, so I was surprised coming to America in 1962 as a young child to find there was this delineation [between races] here."

"Sometimes I can’t even see out of my eyes because I’ve gone to a very dead drop space. Well, you could call it dead but maybe it’s actually very much alive. People get uncomfortable when you’re really listening, when you’re really paying attention, because we’re not used to that anymore. But now I can really see you. I can see all of you"

"I look at things to uplift me and to enthuse me; I don’t look at things to pay the bills and help me just survive. While some may be terrified of the characters he’s played, the actor views his antagonists in a different light. What I feel with each character is an excitement and enthusiasm, a deep commitment and vulnerability to allow them to speak to me."

"In life, we experience relationships sometimes as being traumatic, especially when outside events affect our parents. When they make decisions that we hold them responsible for –– that affect our lives, not knowing all of the reasons they made those decisions for their life –– [it] creates a little bit of [a] gap and a little bit of a traumatic experience."