Actresses From Los Angeles

"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."

"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"

"Black girls, we don’t get, ‘Let’s hire her now and put her in the gym with a trainer and get her where she needs to be.’ You don’t get to get there and figure it out. You’ve got to come already ready"

"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 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 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."

"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"

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"What I have are trust issues and an attraction to emotionally unavailable partners. That, combined with a fear of intimacy that compels me to push away the men who might have the capacity to commit to me in a real and sustainable way, makes for romantic problems. My relationships have been mirrors of how I felt about myself. I've only been treated as well as I thought I deserved."

"One skill a child learns from having alcoholic or drug-dependent parents is to anticipate the needs of those around them. I learned to take care of everyone and make them happy, you before me at all costs, in an unconscious effort to control my environment or to feel needed so to feel worthy, and that doesn't translate into an authentic and trustful relationship."

"Go ahead, Momma. Tell me about your life. Tell me everything."

"My childhood was colorful and chaotic, unstable and inconsistent, unpredictable and hard a lot of the times. But the silver lining is that it made me a very adaptable person."

"I think that everybody would love to play the bad girl, ‘cause for most of us, it’s a stretch."

"We weren't really raised in the public eye because our dad was a behind-the-scenes person. But I will say being raised with privilege, I think that there's a lot of judgment that comes with it and we would never be so presumptuous to pretend like we haven't had a leg up on someone who has no resources and no help in the world and no one to open a door for them and no opportunities."

"I have no words. SF [San Francisco] is a complete s—hole. I am a registered Democrat and feel confident saying liberal politicians are ruining cities."

"I know a lot of aesthetically beautiful women who are not nice people, and they do not come across as beautiful to me. I think the number one thing for beauty is a smile. I love a woman with a beautiful smile."

"That being said, you can have all of the resources and open doors in the world, but if you know don't know what to do with them, they're useless. And we know plenty of kids who grew up with privilege, who grew up wealthy — way more privilege than [us] — and they do nothing with their lives."

"I'll never have a normal life. But I'll have a great career and I will move people, because for my 38 years, I've packed quite a lot in."

"I think so. I was just in a better place. Any time anyone dredges up all that trauma, all those memories, it's difficult to cope unless you have a strong grounding and you're well."

"Now, she's one of the great ladies I know. She went through a lot of heartache and stuff but she's got her own life now. She lives in Palm Springs and we go to see her all the time."

"Tatum recently went back to rehab last month, and she is at a facility in Orange County."

"He was very good-looking. I thought he was charming. It was sort of a chemical attraction or physical attraction, a love at first sight kind of thing."

"There are people will say, I had it coming or it was probably my fault. Or I deserved it -that’s what America has come to you now. Let’s lead with love and kindness and empathy Towards one another."

"How would I feel if my father were to, say, get sick or die even? Would I be OK? And I realized that I wouldn't be OK. So I knew I needed to make an effort, because what is your life without your family? What's your life without a father?"

"I was loved, I was cared for. That's it, that's what one wants, isn't it, in a marriage? I've never met anyone who even comes close to my ex-husband."

"I experimented with women a lot during that time, but that was when I was in my drug phase, so I don't really count it. I wasn't clean, so I wasn't really clear on what I was doing or what I wanted."

"For me, the biggest achievement would be that I did the best audition that I could do, that I got the role that I really wanted, and that I'm self-supporting through my own contributions."

"Rightly so. I had just been arrested for trying to buy crack cocaine on a street corner."

"If you're sad inside and you don't feel loved or wanted on planet earth, once you take something that calms those feelings, it's like Oh boy, this is what it feels like to be made to feel good inside."

"It is what it is. It was a book and it told a story that was sad, and deep, and painful. This book is telling a different story. It’s telling of how I can live the best life that I can when I wasn’t really wanted, in a way. Maybe I was wanted by a fan base because of my work, but I didn’t feel that I was ultimately wanted by my own parents, which was a weird feeling."

"For years I could hardly look people in the eye, Now that I've burned away the painful debris of my life, I feel courageous and open."

"That means that my hands stopped working. It means that I can't tie my shoes. I have to re-learn to write. And I definitely need surgery on my left knee and my neck coming up in the next week."

"He told me he’s sorry, He’s all I have in terms of family, and I needed him in my life. My dad was absolutely everything to me."

"I am very disappointed in Tatum's statements. I had hoped that, after all these years, she would see things more accurately, and that she would share my concern for the welfare of our children."

"I want to get louder I got to get louder We 'bout to go up baby, up we go We 'bout to go up baby, up we goWe're blowing out speakers Our heart a little clearer We 'bout to go up baby, up we go We 'bout to go up baby, up we goFor worst or for better Gonna give it to you In capital letters"

"I didn't know that I was starving till I tasted you Don't need no butterflies when you give me the whole damn zoo By the way, right away, you do things to my body I didn't know that I was starving till I tasted youBy the way, right away, you do things to my body I didn't know that I was starving till I tasted you"

"I think finding your balance is truly about finding your happiness and being patient with yourself and being kind to yourself. It is a term that we hear a lot along with a lot of suggestions as to maybe how to find that balance, but I think you are the one, the only one, that can really define what that is for you."

"I've never left a workout or a gym session feeling anything other than great and happier. Just knowing what my body is capable of and being able to challenge myself…it does something for you mentally that not a lot of other things do."

"I'm very excited about the fact that this is just a very small taste of what's to come. I cannot wait to put music out. It's been a long time coming. It is absolutely going to represent a new era. I've been living with what I've been working on for years now, a couple years, which I really do feel I needed in order to get to where I'm at with the music. And though it is rather frustrating. I have the most patient fans, I don't know how but I got so lucky."

"Gonna love myself, no, I don't need anybody else (hey) Gonna love myself, no, I don't need anybody else (I love me) Can't help myself, no, I don't need anybody else Anytime, day or nightGonna love myself, no, I don't need anybody else (hey) Gonna love myself, no, I don't need anybody else (I love me) Can't help myself, no, I don't need anybody else Anytime that I like (I love me)"

"With [my] music, I feel like I get to be myself, tell my own story, and take my life experiences and not put them into another story but into my own words."

"The new music I have coming, I’ve been working on. All my fans know and they are waiting so patiently or impatiently actually. Its kind of an never-ending process really. I continue to grow each and every day as a write and as a person. There’s more that I want to talk about. There’s more that I am comfortable talking about. I’m constantly being inspired by new artists and producers. I’m definitely taking my time with this."

"From 8 to about 12, I learned very quickly what rejection felt like, what going into a room full of adults expecting a lot out of you felt like. I realized that I'd be in these situations where I had to present myself as someone who, whether I was or wasn't, is confident enough to follow through with the job that I was trying to get."

"That is the biggest form of bullying ever, the paparazzi. Printing lies, making accusations, it's just bullying."

"I feel like every role you take, there's a part of you that obviously feels like you can do it. I don't know if perfect is the right word because I don't believe in perfection. I don't think it exists."