"A couple of days a month, I would - when I was 14, when I was 15, when I was 16, I went to the studio, and they would show me storyboards. And they had very crude - they were 16 mm, very hot lights so that everything stood out very strongly, you know, almost in silhouette sometimes, especially when Snow White was running through the forest or doing anything of that nature. And I made it up. You know, it was almost like extended play for me."

"For every person of color, getting validated is huge. It opens up this world of unpacking stuff that you suppress or push past."

"“I feel honoured to represent black people, sexuality and women.”"

"It's important to have people that you can talk to, where you don't have to explain it because they get it."

"Even though the circumstances are difficult, the highly-charged nature of it makes it incredibly exciting."

"I think people just should be happy, and so I encourage everyone — men, women — there's a lot of people who are stuck in relationships when they're not happy because they don't like the idea or the look of what divorce is"

"It's okay. Everyone should just choose happiness."

"I want to get paid because I know that if I’m getting paid a certain amount, that’s going to raise the price for everybody."

"Everything I said I wanted to do, I'm literally doing."

"Every time you make a movie, the smallest crew could be 50, and the largest crew could be 500 people. That's, how many jobs are you creating? How much generational wealth are you creating when you get to tell and give other people the opportunity to tell that story with you?"

"We woke up successful today."

"If I feel like crying, I just cry. It scares people sometimes, but I’m not keeping secrets either."

"I don’t have the capacity for keeping secrets. If somebody ask me, I’m telling. Period."

"People get so mad at me because I’m being myself. They’re jealous."

"When I was trying to be something I wasn’t, my soul was screaming at me. ‘What are we doing? This is not who we are. Stop it!’"

"Be you. You might actually find somebody that really loves you."

"I program the water to get me jobs. I program the water to bring me adventures. Whatever energy you put out, that’s what you get back."

"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."

"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."

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

"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 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."

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

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

"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’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 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."

"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."

"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."

"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"

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

"I think aging is hard because it gets you closer to the inevitable—that we are impermanent. And the question becomes, what do you seek out of life? What is it that makes you feel alive and excited to be a part of this experience?"

"People talk about joy and happiness and ask me, ‘You seem like you’re so happy all the time’—and that’s just not the case. But I do choose it. And I choose it sometimes when it’s really hard to."

"Because the only time I think about aging is when I’m asked about how I think about aging."

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

"I think awareness is probably a better word. Because if you are imbalanced, you’re aware enough to see it and to correct it."

"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"

"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"

"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 think for a long time they didn’t. And I had to get to a place where I stopped caring in order for me to walk into the place where people now are like, ‘No, I actually get her."

"I've learned to not be as much of a people pleaser"

"DeVon and I both have free will. So, I had to accept that God didn’t lie when he told me that was my husband. That was my husband. But he didn’t say we’d be together forever. God’s word remains true no matter what happens to you and if anything changes, it’s because sometimes life deals you cards you don’t expect or anticipate, but He’ll still bring you through it and He still has an incredible plan for your life"

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

"Once I accepted everything, I felt grateful for the time we had together and the beautiful journey. Then there was an excitement. I get to start life all over again, in my prime, with so many incredible things happening in my life and in my career. I get to do this again"

"That’s what I want. Because it’s not about how good of an actress I am, it’s about how good of a person I am. It’s not about what I’ve accomplished in my career or what I will accomplish, it’s about what I’ve accomplished as a human being and how I use my career to accomplish something that’s bigger than myself. That matters more to me"

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