Khandi Alexander

“I said, 'I'll give myself two years. If I can't support myself as an actress within two years, then I'll go back to choreography.'”

“I love that movie 'Chicago.'”

“I never saw a consistent through-line of employment for black actresses. I was like, 'How are they supporting themselves?'”

“I have deep comedic roots, and I want to be funny.”

“I never get recognized. Most of the time, when people think they know me, they believe I'm a member of their family. And that's the way I like it. That's just fine.”

“Stupidity took me pretty far.”

“I started a list of all my friends who had died of AIDS, and I stopped at 78. I think about things like that, and I'm just real glad to be here.”

“In the case of 'News Radio,' I loved that show. I loved the actors and the producers, but I was longing very much for something more to sink my teeth into me. I think it was an incredibly smart show, but I found myself on the peripheral of a lot of it.”

“Talk about divine intervention. I can't even tell you how blessed I feel.”

“This hiatus coming up I'm looking at a comedy because I need the balance.”

“I have always loved Scott Foley.”

“I don't like to be pigeonholed; I don't like when people won't see me for something because they don't think I can do it. I always feel like, at least give me the shot.”

“I had always done theater during the entire six years I was with 'CSI: Miami.'”

“There's nothing worse than having a very strong female character and then suddenly having it go away.”

“On 'Scandal,' the majority of the cast, if not all of the cast, comes from theater, so it's a healthy environment. People come into work and actually go home to their families.”

“I don't know anyone who's 100 percent pure - nor do I have any interest in portraying anyone like that.”

“When you stop to take a minute and look at Queen Latifah's career, she came out of the box right. You know, 'Ladies First!' And she's been consistent with that message of female self-empowerment. She really has!”

“I like comedy, I love it very much, I love laughing.”

“I love playing characters that are unrecognizable.”

“When you've worked as long as I have, which I'm truly grateful for, you go in and out of these different environments. Sometimes it's not so much fun or easy or healthy. Sometimes you're fighting a lot of things off-camera that have nothing to do with the work on-camera.”