You don't want to make a steady diet of just lettuce. You don't want to make a steady diet of fried chicken.

I don't care what the haters and naysayers say. If they make jokes about me, I'll laugh because they'll probably be funny.

Life is too short to wonder where you hid your waffle maker.

I am proof that the American dream still exists.

I was determined to share my positive approach and not let diabetes stand in the way of enjoying my life.

Change doesn’t happen overnight. It starts with the desire, then one small step in the right direction.

I am proud to be a Southerner. I think Southern hospitality is very... I don't think it's just a term. I think it really exists. You can come to Savannah, and the people are so sweet and so nice.

I will never use a substitute for butter. Margarine is one molecule away from eating plastic.

Growing up, I had a very busy social life. It wasn't until I was a sophomore in high school that I asked Mama if I could come into the kitchen and have her teach me how to cook something.

I don't want to spend my life not having good food going into my pie hole. That hole was made for pies.

Down South, even our vegetables have some pig hidden somewhere in it. A vegetable isn't a vegetable without a little ham hock.

All thinking things fear. Sentience, perhaps, is facing that fear and conquering it rather than succumbing. A tiger will drown in a tar pit, but a man who can clear his thoughts may survive.

Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.

A feminist is a person who believes in the power of women just as much as they believe in the power of anyone else. It's equality, it's fairness, and I think it's a great thing to be a part of.

These are people who haven't gone through the legal means to becoming citizens like our forefathers did. They want all the benefits but none of the responsibilities.

I don't want to be known as the black model. I want to be recognized as Chanel Iman, a personality.

As an actor, you have to be open to doing things where you look stupid, to be experimental.

I didn't anticipate the primal quality of my pleasure, the raw physicality of it, the way my whole body leaps forward when I see my grandsons after a few days' absence.

When I came to North America, it was hard. It was hard to understand, hard to get someone to understand me. I only knew Russian. I studied French in school, but it didn't help. I forgot most of that.

Have the boldness to tell yourself the truth - every bit of it.

Choose a self and stand by it.