Queen Latifah (Actor)

"A lot of the roles I've been given have been me cursing somebody out, but that's not how I am. I don't just yell at people for no reason. And I WON'T be stereotyped." - Queen Latifah in Entertainment Weekly, Sep. 17, 1993

"I believe that you've got to have fun doing what you're doing. When it's not fun, it starts to feel like work and I don't like working, I never really have. [laughs] As long as I can have fun, I'm happy." - Queen Latifah quoted to Venue, February 2003

"I know who I am. I'm a young African-American woman. And that has a meaning. I do have responsibility to my people. And I do have a responsibility as a woman. But what that is is up to me, not anybody else. I don't put people in a box, and I never wanted to be put in one myself." - Queen Latifah to Premiere, October 2004

"I'm married to myself. I just felt it was time to take care of me, pamper myself. And when I meet the right man who can treat me as well as I treat myself, I will take this ring off and replace it with his." - Queen Latifah commenting on the platinum band on her left hand, as quoted in the Daily News, Nov. 3, 1996

"I'm not into all that Hollywood bullshit. I don't need to have the fastest car. I don't need to have the fifty thousand diamonds on my hand. Give me a bank account, gimme real estate, gimme companies, gimme shit that's gonna continue on past your broken-down Benz that you can't afford to keep. I love some of those things, but I'm not gonna be the one wearing what everybody else is wearing. I refuse to be like everybody else. I'm different. I'm the Queen, you know? That's what set me up from the beginning. I didn't want to wear gold chains and call myself MC Latifah. I threw a crown on. I took my little promo money and bought me a couple of outfits and had an African suit made with a crown and people noticed me because I wasn't looking like everybody else." - Queen Latifah quoted in Interview, November 1996

"My mama always said that I would marry an older man because that's who can handle me." - Queen Latifah quoted to Ebony, April 2003

"My mom and God are my influences. God keeps me on track because he knows I'm human and that I'll make mistakes. I want to get into heaven, so you'll never find me sinning too much. But in life I try to be brave and take charge." - Queen Latifah to Jeanne Wolf in "Queen Latifah's Latest Crown" from THE BIZ, October 1996

"Part of the credit for Latifah's speedy rise in the music industry involves her membership in a loose collective of rappers known as the Native Tongues Posse. As constituents of the Native Tongues, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, the Jungle Brothers and Monie Love emphasized Afrocentric clothing, a playful, abstract, lyrical style of rapping and vague, idealistic spirituality." - from the New York Newsday, Feb. 20, 1994

"This film business is a challenge to me. I want to be De Niro. I want to be Pacino and Foster and Hanks, but black. And I've got to put in work to do that. There's always gonna be another wall to climb over, kick down, bust through or blow away. As long as life keeps going there and changing, I'll never give it less than 100 percent." - Queen Latifah in The Los Angeles Times, Nov. 4, 1996

As of January 1994, Latifah is chief executive officer of Flavor Unit, a management and production company whose clients include Naughty by Nature, Fu-Schnickens, Apache and Nikki D. The firm is run by Latifah's mother and has 10 full-time employees.

In 2003 Latifah had her E breast cup size reduced to a DD cup, due to health reasons.

In addition to her acting roles, Queen Latifah's music has been heard in the films "New Jack City" and "Straight Out of Brooklyn" (both 1991), "White Men Can't Jump" and "Class Act" (both 1992) and "The Associate" (1996).

Latifah was arrested for carrying a loaded pistol, driving without a license and possession of marijuana; received a fine and two years probation in February 1996.

Queen Latifah revealed that she was the victim of sexual abuse as a child in the July 2009 Issue of Essence magazine.