Life is very short. Try to enjoy your 'now.' Many people think that when they become such-and-such then they will be happy. I personally don't think it is healthy to postpone your happiness. My message is, 'Enjoy the moment.'
— Adina Porter
All I wanted was to be an actor and have a happy family, and I did it. I still remember when I was doing shows in my parents' living room, and everyone had to watch me.
You can so easily be dismissed as a thug or hysterical if you're a woman if you don't keep your rage in check.
I'm a working actor, and I want to stay a working actor, and I want everybody happy.
I am first-generation American, so I didn't grow up in the South or have any relatives who were slaves. My forefathers were colonized.
Thank goodness for IMDB.
Incredibly lucky to be an actor at this period in history. I'm able to work in this business and look put-together - sexy, even - with natural hair.
I get a thrill out of looking at my Twitter following and seeing how big it has gotten.
I think that when I'm an actor, I get hired, and you say jump three inches, I'll jump three inches. I just kind of trust what the writer's vision is.
I'm very happy to be a working actor.
One-liners that must land perfectly in just the right nanosecond can be terrifying.
Less is more. You should wear earrings or bracelets, but not both.
I thought, because of 'The 100' and 'Apocalypse,' that I knew everything about what life after an apocalypse would be - but Ryan Murphy and the writers of 'American Horror Story' have shown a whole other side of an apocalypse.
When you trust, and you open your heart, and you think - well, maybe not heart - when you put down your guard and you let someone in and they betray you, that guard goes up really hard.
I'm a bit of a wuss. I'll even watch, like, a Tom Cruise 'Jack Reacher' movie where, I mean, there's a lot of action, but the violence is no real violence, but I still hide my face because there might be violence.
My father was born and raised in Sierra Leone, and my mom was from Bermuda.
Work is hard, but being a mom is harder.
Every once in a while, I'll have an acting role that allows me to look at something in my life and work it out.
This whole thing about announcing stuff and sharing it online is a new phenomenon. Keeping things private is really, really easy and simple.
I'm not one of those actresses that asks what's going to happen. I've never been. I just take the scripts, and I see what's given to me, and I go with it that way.
On slower days, when I was only needed for coverage or reaction shots, the set of 'The Newsroom' was better than therapy. Chris Chalk and I would debate life's dilemmas... until Sam Waterston would chime in and set us both straight.
Acting in a scene is easy.
My life guided me to express my full potential.
I used to hate my behind, like every other black girl. I hated my behind. I hated my hair. I hated my nose because no one said it was beautiful.
I'm a working actor, and I'm really appreciative to be a working actor, but it's another level when you're a working actor with the likes of Sarah Paulson and Angela Bassett.
Growing up, I didn't know about the Japanese internment camps until I saw a movie of the week as an adult. I remember going, 'How come that wasn't covered in history class?' Moving to California, you run into people whose grandparents lost everything and their businesses and were put in these internment camps.
I know what it's like to do whatever you need to do to make sure that your kids are happy and well and succeed.
If you're going to talk about politics, then there are going to be folks who are with you and folks that are against you.
My kids are resilient, I'm resilient, and I guess I am an optimist.
I've worked in this business long enough that I know people who complain, like, 'My character does this, and my character does that,' and I think it's just ego talking.
I'm a mom... and I'm learning this being a parent, sometimes your child can be such a reflection of who you are. And I have to figure out when it is my ego that dictates how I parent and when it is what I think is best for my child.
Monologues are fun.
