I'm really good at growing roses.

I'm always professional and turn up on time and do my job.

I remember when I got to 16, my mum was like, 'No, now you've got to go and get a proper job. We've indulged you long enough.' I don't think they ever thought I was going to be successful in entertainment at all.

I am a light person. I think of myself with a shield, a protective shield around me. And I think of bad things bouncing off it. Boom, boom, boom, ba-boom, ba- boom!

We were raised in the black community not to trust the police, and I believe, in the white community, they were raised to actually be a policeman.

I don't think people have been able to deal with the fact that African American filmmakers can make movies about life and relationships.

You have to move in life, but the loyalty you develop in a community is always remembered. But if you leave, you don't pick it up in the next town. It's not an add-on, you know, because you lose what you had.

It's one of the hardest things in the world to sustain a monogamous relationship for many years. People out there who have been with their partners for 30 years or more - I salute you. But it's just as hard to admit something isn't working and then try to manage a civilised separation as best as you can.