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It's really important to share the idea that being different might feel like a problem at the time, but ultimately diversity is a strength.

In the end, I realized that I just didn't like acting enough to put up with the stereotype and I didn't really think I was good enough to transcend it.

I've portrayed so many diverse individuals on the screen that my own personality never emerged.

I was one of I think three white girls in my school. So, I was very much an outsider. And plus I was Jewish and all of my friends were black and Baptist because they listen to the coolest music. We were all listening to Ray Charles and what was then called race music.

I was told at first that being different was a bad thing. Everywhere I went, it was just, 'You're too different'... And it turned out that being different was the best thing that ever happened to my career. It is why people travel to my shows. It's why people want to hear my story and buy my book.

At times, I might have been too young; I might have been too naive at times and didn't understand who I really was to a whole culture.

I knew from an early age that people didn't see the different sides of me. I formulated a kind of bi-cultural identity quite early, and I was always very comfortable with it, but I knew people didn't quite see that.

I just always considered myself to be different and able to explore whatever I wanted.

I'm not confused. I'm just well mixed.

In my early writing, all of my characters were exactly the same person. They all spoke the same, made the same types of jokes, reacted the same, etc. I think they were all just me in disguise.