Cree Summer

“I've been singing since I was young.”

“It it weren't for HBCUs, 'A Different World' wouldn't exist.”

“I'm appreciating the little bitty things that make me happy.”

“I was raised on an Indian reservation, and I didn't see a television set till I was 10, so it's not a part of my life.”

“Usually cartoon characters stay a certain age; that's part of their appeal. Usually they don't grow up.”

“When I'm working with strangers, I can get a little timid or scared. With friends, I'm willing to' try anything, because there's a lot of trust involved.”

“The Indians are a civilization wrought with culture and a beautiful, deep spirituality.”

“I grew up in a house made out of mud.”

“My father said, 'Let's raise our child in a paradise instead of a parking lot,' and that's what they did.”

“I always wanted to be a rock star.”

“I was reading 'The Prophet' on my own when I was 10 years old.”

“I like to look at the skyline and the moon.”

“People say to me, 'Ooh, L.A. is so plastic.' Sure, it's mountains to the right, oceans to the left and pretense in the middle, but who... has to hang out in the middle?”

“I worry about the environment. I'm very aware of what I eat, for example.”

“I want to continue acting as long as I feel right about it.”

“I was never plunked in front of an idiot box because my parents had other things to do.”

“I've always been proud to be different, I've always stood out like a sore thumb and I always have not given a damn.”

“I know what it's like to have not and I know what it's like to have. I think I'm conscious of what I get and grateful.”

“Being in the body of an African-American woman, I prefer animation. I get to be everybody. I don't have to always be the white girl's best friend. I can be the princess. I can make an inanimate object come to life. I can be a little boy. I can be anything.”

“When I was 19 my friends dared me to come to Los Angeles and see if I could make it down here.”