"Even though I’m happy about the Oscars this year and there were so many black nominees, film has a ways to go. It’s not looking like the world we’re living in. We’re making progress — I’ve seen it firsthand. But it’s not reflecting this melting pot just yet."

"When I first started in the business 20 years ago, I could count on one hand how many black actresses were working, and now I don’t even know them all"

"Having faith is being grateful and finding the gratitude"

"I grew up in a time where these things begin in childhood—your grandparents, aunts, uncles, your own parents, the teachers in your classrooms"

"There was something about going through a pledge period with other young women who you really didn't know very well"

"It's not just about what other people do. It's about you, too."

"in your own thought, you create opportunities and obstacles"

"TV is starting to look like the world we live in"

"I’ve read the Koran, I’ve read Indian scriptures and I really like taking from them all"

"A person who knows how to act can better direct an actor"

"The more vivid an imagination you have, [the more it] brings reality to the story that you’re telling, and the more the audience will be brought in"

"she is every mother regardless of race"

"I think it’s important for people to have somebody who’s objective, and who’s not necessarily a friend or family"

"sometimes I think people cast people on an intuitive level, they don’t even know they’re doing it, but this has happened a lot where you have a real connection with the person"

"I definitely am more spiritual than I am religious"

"The internet has given a lot of anonymous people a very loud voice"

"inner reality creates the outer form"

"It crossed all racial and cultural lines."

"The greatest character actor is going to bring an aspect of themselves"

"The ethnicity is obvious — it’s in our food, it’s in the music we listen to, it’s in the books we read, it’s in the way we live, it’s in the company we keep and the dances that we do"

"I know who I am"

"I almost made my Broadway debut much sooner"

"When you’re going through a hard time on the opposite side of the struggle there’s always the beauty of the gift that comes from the struggle"

"I chose intentionally to work for Cook County Health because their motto is to give everyone the care and respect they need, regardless of their ability to pay."

"I wanted to be able to take care of so many kinds of people, so many kinds of issues, and to know a lot about many different things."

"You are made in the likeness of your ancestors. ... As we move through life, it is important to remember the wisdom of those before us. Life changes day to day."

"I am proud of the fact that I deemed it essential to teach patients about their medical condition, encourage them to ask questions, and to read. I am proud of the knowledge I have been able to impart to physicians around the country through lectures on gastrointestinal diseases."

"One cannot go through life without facing obstacles of various types. We have to remain focused, barrel over the obstacles, see the light at the end of the tunnel, and by the Grace of God, keep moving."

"I didn't come in the Army to service any of them, I came in to nurse them."

"Doing that work is the true joy of training the next generation of scientists and clinicians who are going to be doing science differently, who are going to be translating science into care differently"

"My greatest satisfaction is being able to treat children all over the world for a disease that a few years ago, was considered hopeless."

"That is so critical. Because I’m training the young women who are going to go into these fields, we don’t want them to be harassed out of them,"

"Even though I wasn’t sure of the effectiveness, I was sure that doing nothing wasn’t going to make anything better,"

"Some of the challenges I have faced have been in getting trained in pediatric surgery and in pediatric surgical oncology. When I applied to be a pediatric surgery fellow, I did not match the first time, second time or third time because there were no other Black pediatric surgeons. I am the first board-certified U.S. Black female pediatric surgeon. This was a huge hurdle to overcome. It was challenging at first, but I love my profession now."

"It takes 10-14 hours, sometimes 20 hours. The longest operation I’ve done is 22 hours. That individual had over 2,000 tumors"

"We all have a responsibility to create and sustain environments where women can not only compete, but can thrive. Institutions of higher education have had to rethink some of their models amid the pandemic and find new ways to provide experiential opportunities for students amid remote learning and, in some cases, this has led to new partnerships and collaborations between companies and organizations and colleges and universities."

"And I hope to be tangible evidence for young girls and young boys and girls from communities of color that you can aspire to be a physician. Not only that, you can aspire to be a leader in organized medicine."

"We face big challenges in health care today, and the decisions we make now will move us forward in a future we help create."

"The saying ‘if you can see it, you can believe it’ is true"

"To be able to heal confers an obligation to heal, In an atmosphere of mistrust, it is critically important for clinical physicians and physician scientists to be able to translate their knowledge, their practice, and their science into the public domain."

"Leadership can happen in ways large and small. I believe leadership happens more often in small ways in our own personal spheres of influence and in some ways that some people may never see."

"We are no longer at a place where we can tolerate the disparities that plague communities of color, women, and the LGBTQ community. But we are not yet at a place where health equity is achieved in those communities,"

"I have had many wonderful students over the years. Many have gone on for their master's and doctorate degrees and that has been most rewarding for me."

"I used to prefer teaching to administrative work, but by the time I left teaching in 1995, the students cared about nothing but the grades and they didn't care how they got them. I believe in knowledge for knowledge's sake. But students now need a reason for everything. Everything has to be useful and entertaining. And they don't study."

"Whenever anything broke in our house, before we threw it out, my dad would say, ‘Let’s take it apart just to look inside.’ Because it was already broken, we could break it even more. That was a lot of fun."