LATANYA RICHARDSON

I don't think you can ease yourself into theater. I just thrust myself into it.

Folks are always talking about 40 acres and a mule, but what we need is some psychoanalysis. Forget 40 acres in a mule: sign all of us up for some shrinks so we can get ourselves right by reflecting and truly learning ourselves.

In the theater, it's a visceral and physical response because you move around so much. You have to do something physical to pull you in. On TV or in movies, everything is so small. You can just lock into a character and ease yourself into that way.

Look at Michelle Obama. Everyone keeps making a big deal about her arms being exposed, but don't get it twisted: her arms are out for a reason. Black women have had those arms forever - lifting, picking cotton, toting and carrying babies.

I didn't want my daughter brought up by nannies, and I didn't want her to feel I wasn't around.

Acting is in your soul.

I never played an ingenue.

If you can make it in theater, you can make it anywhere.

It used to just be a SAG card, and then you got an AFTRA card. I got my AFTRA card doing a commercial in Atlanta. I got my SAG card doing a beer commercial from 100 years ago; it was one of the first national commercials with a family in it that was black and normal, and I played the daughter.

I've had the luxury of not having to work because of my husband.

I have always been involved in some philanthropic work - growing up in the church, you always had to have a reasonable portion of service to the community and to people who have less, who need a helping hand. It's just something in my heart that I know needs to be done.

There is no one American beauty or just one beautiful color in the pantheon, especially in regards to black people - there is no better color.

From the moment I saw 'Camelot' as a kid, the organic inclination of performing before a live audience is raw and visceral. Once you're out there, there's no yelling 'Cut!' or any such thing as a do-over because that moment has passed, and you're in it as it's happened and gone, sharing it with everyone.

Woodie King Jr., in 1970, had started a company called the New Federal Theatre, which was ensconced at the Henry Street Settlement. I did a number of plays there, and I auditioned each time. The plays were mostly new. New York was very fertile ground; there was a plethora of African-American plays being done.

I hold onto the spirit of God for everything, and that works for me. That aspect of my life is very real and is the truth.

I think most Americans, when we're building a character, we look at the specificity of what that person is, in particular.

I did theater at Spelman until I graduated from there, and I got to work with such luminous actresses as Diana Sands in 'Macbeth.'

If I can stay centered, I'm basically going to be living in the world a happy person.

I think that we're reducing who we are as human beings to these cell phones and these devices; now we don't even want to pick up a telephone to talk - we just text.

The theater is the reason I am an actress.

I've learned that all of us should be constantly mindful of what's going on around us. Sometimes I think we get pretty single-minded in our pursuits and forget that we really do need each other. We need to actively engage in giving and helping each other every day.

Atlanta was a welcoming presence for a lot of artists; they called it 'the Mecca of the South.' I got to see the Negro Ensemble Company, Cicely Tyson, Geraldine Page, Ruby Dee, all onstage.

I have not tried for a career that's showy. I have always tried to layer things in and not push it. I love an underperformance, where you're so entrenched in who that person is that you're living in it.

I know it's a stock answer, but besides acting, I'd love to produce and direct.

Our joy was to do theater. And in some theaters, the only pay we got was tokens for carfare.