I guess I don't have the cut-throat ambition that some other actresses have. I don't know how good that is for my career, but I know how good that is for me as a person. And to me, that's much more important.

I love what I do, and I love doing it, and I love getting better at it. I just am not willing to risk... Much... to go on to the next level. I don't want to risk my personal sanity or happiness or my family or the love of my life.

It's not precisely that I'm not ambitious. I love what I do, and I love doing it, and I love getting better at it. I just am not willing to risk... much... to go on to the next level.

Movies and I just equally avoided each other at certain times in my life, you know?

I had family who exposed me to all sorts of different media involving actors - films, theatrical productions touring through Boston. My grandparents, particularly my mother's parents, were huge fans of all the arts, and they took me to these shows and exhibits at a very young age, so I was just immersed in it.

I willingly devoted myself to my children and to my husband. I come from a broken home, and I decided a long time ago that I would put my family ahead of everything.

My father was born in the year 1900 in South Carolina, and he grew up at a time where being an African-American child in the American South was to be deprived of access to anything close to a reasonable education. He only had three years of formal education, but he was self-taught. He read two newspapers a day.

I never got caught up in playing for history, seeing how many majors I could win, or rewriting the record books. Those are selfish objectives, and the guy who chokes usually does so because he dwells on what it all means to him. I was only worried about my family. And although I had my share of failures, it was never because I choked.