Tasha Smith

There was a time when I just felt like a superwoman. I was like, 'I got Jesus! I ain't afraid!' But, the truth is, I want to do things right, and sometimes I am afraid that I'm not good enough or that I'm not going to handle something right.

One day, my twin sister Sidra and I pranked Tyler Perry on the set of 'For Better or Worse.' I made her dress up as me and do a scene as if she were my character Angela. Tyler says, 'Action!' and my sister starts acting. It was horrible.

The thing about dancing - what it taught me all those years - is it gives you an amazing sense of discipline in forcing yourself to do things that you know are good for you but you don't really want to do.

The historical novelist has to consider what has actually happened, while the SF writer is dealing in possibilities, but they are both in the business of imagining a world unlike our own and yet connected to it.