The truth is, we all face hardships of some kind, and you never know the struggles a person is going through. Behind every smile, there's a story of a personal struggle.
Adrienne C. Moore
The loss of my father will always sting. But now, everything that I do is in honor of him and celebrates his life.
We define family in many different ways: not just by blood but by people with whom we find a common ground and a common bond.
I learned that, with grief, you have to take it one day at a time and learn how to find the happiness amid the heartbreak.
If I could eat French fries every day of my life, I would.
Whether we are working to pay off student loans, credit card debt, paying for elder or childcare, or even trying to save for retirement, the idea of the American dream still remains just that - a dream.
I am imperfect. I am funny. I am real.
I clip hand sanitizer to my purse. I used to be a babysitter back in the day, so I got germaphobic.
I grew up in Nashville, born and raised. I'm a country girl, and I love country music. I had a dream I was going to be the first black female country music star, but then that wasn't the case.
We think of our prison inmates as the dregs of society, and we scorn them and push them off to the side and forget about them. We have to remember that they are humans, and they have rights, and yes, they did wrong, but we all have one shot at doing wrong, you know?
Food is a reflection of who you are as a person.
I connected to this idea of faith and spirituality and religion and Christianity being a very strong crux of who I am at the core and how a lot of what we think and believe is based around our spiritual beliefs.
I didn't lose weight for my career or a relationship - I did it to be happy and, as Oprah says, to live my best life.
I love 'Game of Thrones.'
I remember going through that process of growing my hair out, straightening it, cutting off the relaxed hair. I finally got to a point where I went to the Dominicans because they can straighten it real good. By the end of the day, the part of my hair that had just been pressed straight was already starting to coil back up.
Growing up, there was this explosion of B television. 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air,' you have 'Family Matters,' 'A Different World.' I had examples - of black children, black families, black women, black men - that represented who I was.
I've learned that we all have an ugly side.
You think of a criminal, and you already judge them for the crime, and you don't really see the human side of them. We all have our sides that we're not proud about.
It's not about trying to be perfect. It's not about trying to walk the straight and narrow. It's about loving who you are and finding those people who love and accept you for who you are.
I was raised in a very religious household - it wasn't dogma, but we were raised Christian; we went to church every Sunday, Bible study, Bible camp every summer.
One of my secret nerdy things is that I love education.
My dad was the first man I ever loved.
My mom and dad are great cooks. We ate meals at the dinner table, as a family.
The way I like to cook is to have music going, usually jazz, and something in my hand, usually a glass of wine.
I think cooking should be an experience, not a chore.
I did study religion at Northwestern, and it was a very interesting time for me because I think it was the beginning of my personal journey in this understanding of the purpose that religion serves in our culture and in our individual lives. It serves to ground us and be our moral compass.
At some point, we have to move away from the pack to take certain journeys on our own.
I'm a girl from the South, so I was raised with morals - you know, your family's first.
I'm scared of the gym - I see all these machines, and I'm like, 'What is that? What am I supposed to do?'
I hit my thirties and felt I had to start being profound.
Lipsticks are like socks. I put lipstick on before any other makeup. I use MAC's Chestnut lip liner, and sometimes I mix two or three shades together.
I got a pouch at Chelsea Market in NYC that says, 'Art Is More Important Than Math.' It has pencils and a highlighter. I always have to sign something or highlight a script.
I studied psychology, history, and religion. I was a heady girl, but frankly, I'm glad I studied those subjects because a lot of that has really helped me as an actress.
Psychology is simply great because it helps you better understand all kinds of people.
A friend of mine is chief of staff at a big prison in Georgia. Along with giving me a tour of the prison, she allowed me to meet inmates.
I used to get these as a kid all the time - Doritos, Cheetos, Funions... and Andy Capp's Hot Fries. I have a crunch fetish.
I love a mocha latte!
There are so many elements that make 'Orange' spectacular - the writing, the acting, what we talk about - but we can't neglect the music of the show. It sets a fantastic tone.
It's kinda cool to have friends that just do good.
I am obsessed with Green Tidings deodorant - it's this natural deodorant.
One of the things I love about 'Orange' is I think we bring to light a lot of topics that, particularly in terms of prison, might go untalked about.
I think there's this idea that if we put up a play with all African-Americans or all Latinas, or even if we mix it up, then it won't really sell to a mainstream audience. At the end of the day, what's going to drive the story being told is what's going to drive people to the seats.
As women, we're supposed to bear the burden of raising our families and then also financially providing for them as well, and it's difficult when you're already starting off making less than the average.
We spend so many hours a day - even if we're not physically in the office - working, thinking about work, and planning and setting up and organizing with work, even with our families.
I think, overall, there is a lack of diversity in the arts. I'm thinking about when I was in grad school: I could probably count on one hand the number of minority students in the graduate school program.
In 2006, I made the decision to go after my dream. I was living in Atlanta and had a promising career in marketing, but I took a leap of faith and decided to move to New York, enroll in graduate school, and pursue acting.
Not being able to afford many of the basic necessities to survive, I placed all my loans in forbearance, enrolled in food stamps and Medicaid, and took on part-time jobs anywhere I could find them.
When you do television, you're filming out of sequence sometimes. You have to ground yourself very quickly in the character and in the work and in the words. I think theater allowed me that sort of sharp, quick focus to do that.
I typically try not to think too hard about what I'm going to do in a certain scene with a certain actor in a certain moment because I think that kind of lends its way to not being as improvisational and sort of carefree as one would hope.
'Law & Order' is a dream come true. I grew up watching it! I always wanted to portray a character on the show because it's always so riveting.
