"I would love to do a biopic of a famous singer, like Diana Ross or Donna Summer, or an old jazz story that we haven't seen before. I would love to do that! I would love to play Diana Ross 'cause she's an icon. I'm salivating to do that."

"It's up to you to be responsible for how you feel if you're not happy. Your happiness lies in your hands. You can't rely on a man to make you happy or complete you. That starts with you."

"Every human walks around with a certain kind of sadness. They may not wear it on their sleeves, but it's there if you look deep."

"Once you're a mom, always a mom. It's like riding a bike, you never forget."

"Love has its own instinct, finding the way to the heart, as the feeblest insect finds the way to its flower, with a will which nothing can dismay nor turn aside."

"The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased."

"The ocean of adversity cannot drown the spirit that resolves to stay afloat."

"There is nothing so desperately monotonous as the sea, and I no longer wonder at the cruelty of pirates."