“I’ve got cousins galore, Mexicans just spread all their seeds and the women just pop them out.”

Parents try the best they can. They want the best for you. But a lot of their stuff is just their own. If you can pull yourself away from it and not always feel like they’re attacking you, then it’s easier to deal with.

I never fit in with my peer group. I never hung out with kids my age – I always wanted to hang out with my mom and her girlfriends.

I’m not one of those women with a really thin body. I have body fat.

I’m all about supporting anyone whose art is also the way they make their living.

Find your passion and do it totally. The more life experience you get, the better you’ll be at whatever you want to do.

I like to organize. I have an opinion. I like to get stuff done.

I don’t put weight on fame, and having people around me just because I am famous makes me feel really bad about myself.

The time I’m not spending with my kid has to be worth it.

Guys are stimulated easily. They are easy to manipulate. All you have to do is wear a sexy outfit.

I basically went out with any guy who asked me because hardly anyone ever asked me out.

As a girl, I was always told I was nasty or dirty if I was sexual in any way. Americans are such prudes.

I share the same advice that my mom gave me – stay hydrated and sleep well. And that being a beautiful person on the inside is what really matters.

The secret to using power is not to use it. Just having it is enough.

Honor has to say “please” and “thank you.” Manners are really important.

When I went from girl body to woman body and all of a sudden I had tits and hips and a little tummy and natural fat in places, I freaked out.

My theory is that if you look confident you can pull off anything – even if you have no clue what you’re doing.

My mum had a cousin that had played when he was younger.

They’re probably not any more complex or interesting than their good, law-abiding cousins, and I’d always tend to see things from their point of view.

I come from a huge family and out of all 34 of my immediate family members, my heavier influences were women. Between my grandmothers, aunts, older female cousins, and of course my mother,

However, I was very conscious of the fact that both sides of my family were drastically different and my aunts, cousins, and uncles varied in different shades of brown.

My family has always had Cape Verdean pride but I don’t think it was something the kids in the family necessarily understood.

I’ve always been an actress, entertaining my family was the start. I’m a goof ball among many of my cousins and siblings.

I started with ballet and then my cousin Sarah introduced me to her tap teachers.

From her gospel-singing mother Cissy Houston, her legendary pop-diva cousin Dionne Warwick, and her Queen of Soul godmother Aretha Franklin