My whole life I've had the fear that I was going to be abandoned.

I carried my Oscar to bed with me. My first and only three-way happened that night.

I'm not done with love, but I refuse to settle. I am a hopeless romantic. And I won't stop till I get it right.

I don't think I'm unlike a lot of people. I am just someone who is trying to find that mate, and I think it's a really hard thing to do.

I'm not the girl for superhigh fashion because I don't have the right body.

Being a mother is probably the most important thing in my life right now.

I like Doritos. I'm usually watching 'The Biggest Loser' eating Doritos.

You think you know what love is - until you have a child and discover that unconditional mother love.

I think there's a certain level of trust that I have with women. I've always been honest, even when I haven't had good times in my life or my movie bombed or I've had great success. I've owned up to all of it.

There's a place in me that can really relate to being the underdog.

My style has evolved in a nice way, but everyone has bad moments.

In the X-Men the women are so strong and sexy! We really kick some male butt!

I don't see a white woman. I see a black woman, even though my mother is white. Knowing that has made my life easier, I think.

What's the worst that can happen? If it doesn't do well I can put on my big girl panties, deal with it and move on.

If you really want to be competitive in today's market you have to be in movies that make money.

I'm not sad at all about turning 40.

I'm not afraid of portraying anything on-screen.

I'm learning to accept the lack of privacy as the real downer in my profession.

I know I'm only one human being and I'm only making one tiny contribution and it's nothing more than that.

I don't know why, but I respond well to tortured characters.

Anytime you put a movie out it's subject to such scrutiny and such criticism.

And you also have to do movies that are about commerce because that's what is required of the industry today.

I think it's always best to be who you are.

The worst thing a man can ever do is kiss me on the first date.

It is very hard to separate one's self from a character. Sometimes the people closest to me have to be very understanding.

I was black growing up in an all-white neighborhood, so I felt like I just didn't fit in. Like I wasn't as good as everybody else, or as smart, or whatever.

I think I've evolved into someone pretty confident - in myself and in my skin.

I'm a much better mother at 46... than if I were like, 21 or 25.

I always had to prove myself through my actions. Be a cheerleader. Be class president. Be the editor of the newspaper.

By the time I left school, I had a lot of tenacity.

My mother helped me identify myself the way the world would identify me. Bloodlines didn't matter as much as how I would be perceived.

Having a baby takes so much from you. It's the most glorious thing you'll ever do, but the aftermath is not so glorious!

I always had to diet. I'm diabetic, so it's a lifestyle for me anyway just to stay healthy and not end up in the hospital.

I think we have become obsessed with beauty and personally I'm really saddened by the way women mutilate their faces today in search of that.

I'm not done with love, but I refuse to settle.

People win 'Oscars', and then it seems like they fall off the planet. And that's partly because a huge expectation walks in the room and sits right down on top of your head.

Every story about me is so heavy and dramatic. That's not how I do life. But that's the impression people have, and that's what keeps getting reiterated. As if I'm still stuck in all the muck of the past. And I am so not.

Career is important, but nothing really supersedes my roles as a mother.

I'm not the girl for super high fashion because I don't have the right body. When I want to get dressed up, I'm a Roberto Cavalli girl.

I'm not one of these actresses like, 'Okay, where's the camera? Is it here? Is it here?' I don't even ask the questions because I don't really want to know. I like not performing for a camera but giving it my best every single time whether you're close or whether you're far.

I do not love to work out, but if I stick to exercising every day and put the right things in my mouth, then my diabetes just stays in check.

People win Oscars, and then it seems like they fall off the planet. And that's partly because a huge expectation walks in the room and sits right down on top of your head. The moment I won the Oscar, I felt the teardown the very next day.

A person's self-esteem has nothing to do with how she looks.

Throughout my career I have been talked out of things I wanted to do, and when I look back, I think I should have followed my instincts.

I archive a lot of my clothes and have them wrapped up and in boxes. I call them 'little tombs' and keep them in a storage space... I would never get rid of the dress I wore on the night I won my Oscar. When I die, someone can have it, but not a minute before!

I wear my personality on my sleeve, for sure, and my look is constantly changing because so am I.

I'm open about having bipolar disorder. I'm open about being of mixed race. I'm open about being bisexual, and I have this wantingness to talk about it, and for me, it's about more than being a role model for any specific community.

The environment around you shapes who you are. How you handle an emergency or how you react when someone is rude to you, that's you.

Being bisexual, being bipolar, being biracial - it's been used to define me, but I am desperate to be indefinable.

I'm a human, and I'm multidimensional. If I was the perfect form of anything, I'd be boring. If I was a free spirit all the time, I would be boring; I would lack depth. If I was dark and enigmatic all the time, then I would lack relatability.