You Never Know How People

I Never Went In Thinking, "you're An African-american Woman, So You're Never Going To Win." I Was Just In Career Doing Beauty Pageants For The Experience, And To Show My Brains And Talent And Help Break Stereotypes. It Wasn't Like, "oh, I'll Become A Star. I'm Beautiful." I Never Thought I Was Pretty. I Couldn't Even Put On Eyelashes Or Makeup. When You Come From An Environment That's Military, And They Don't Stress That Topic Of Aesthetics Or Beauty Pageants And Makeup, There Are A Lot Of Things You Just Don't Have That City Girls Have.

I Don't Think I Can Break Down Any Doors, But I'm Thinking, "maybe I Can Be A Cameraman, Because I Love The Cameras." And The Cameraman Would Show Me How To Thread The Film, How To Repair It, The Lenses. That's When You Become, Like, Goony Goo-goo About It. You Breathe And Eat Camera, And All Of A Sudden, You Don't Want Anything Else In The World. You Finally Know, "this Is My Calling." When You're Passionate About Something, It Doesn't Become Work. It's Art And It's Fun. It's Arduous, It's Sweaty.

I'm Just Going To Try To Do The Best Work At Whatever I'm Going To Be, And I Don't Think I'm Going To Be An Actress.

That's What He Was Saying, The Civil Rights Movement - Judge Me For My Character, Not How Black My Skin Is, Not How Yellow My Skin Is, How Short I Am, How Tall Or Fat Or Thin; It's By My Character.

I Was A Child Of The Women's Movement. Everything I Had Learned Was From My Mother And My Grandmother, Who Both Had A Very Pioneering Spirit. They Had To, Because They Had To Change Flat Tires And Paint The House - Because, You Know, The Men Didn't Come Home From The War Or Whatever Else, So Women Had To Do These Things.