Can I just tell you the truth? I get asked to do a lot of stuff. And all of the years that people have asked me to do things for the film festival, I couldn't. And so this year, I thought, "Oh, my god, I don't have a day job. If somebody ask me to do something, I'm going to do it."

I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it

You did the best you could, the best you knew how at the time." It was something like that. From Oprah on an Oprah show. Then I believe my quote above was from Maya Angelou on the Oprah show, not Oprah herself. I had heard it before but it was on Oprah's show again 1-7-09 and she said Maya had said it.

The life you want is waiting to rise up to meet you ... Will you accept it? Do you feel worthy enough to accept it?

Being a mother is the hardest job on earth. Women everywhere must declare it so.

New York traffic can drive you crazy.

I love what the church offers to us as a culture - black people in particular. We would be nowhere without the black church.

I try to live in the moment and let that moment carry me to the next great place.

One of the things that I encourage for anybody who is interested in their own charity or philanthropy is to start from where you are and what has mattered to you.

Whatever your calling or purpose is, it's your job to feel it. No gift that you have been given was made for yourself.

What you want to do is to get to the point where you only do what matters to you. The real goal in life is to become more of who you are, so that you can make the choices that really satisfy who you are and what you want to do.

So, The Color Purple changed my life. It changed everything about my life because, in that moment of praying and letting go, I really understood the principle of surrender. The principle of surrender is that, after you have done all that you can do, and you've done your best and given it your all, you then have to release it to whatever you call God, or don't call God.

What you're thinking, what you're saying, what you're doing, is having an impact on you and the people around you

I don't think there's anything better you can do in this world than bring light wherever you go.

Back then, a few doilies and napkins were all that a lot of women had. In the little house where I grew up, the pillowcases my grandmother embroidered were the only things of beauty.

If you make a choice that goes against what everyone else thinks, the world will not fall apart.

That's what leads to a reinvention of yourself - being fully present and in the moment.

Instead of looking for the success in your life, look for the thing that is going to bring you the greatest joy.