I've just been really lucky to not be too much of a stereotype.

I really don't like when things are all polished and perfect - the perfect love story and the hair is perfect.

You express different energies at different times in your life.

Not to get overly psychological about this, but it's probably why I became an actress in the first place: for that kind of freedom and refuge, as well as for the fact that I just love acting so much.

Politics itself is so unsexy, isn't it? But when the politics in creative works are really explored - not used as a vehicle - the results can be really interesting.

I grew up on musicals, and I know they are quite the thing now, but I'm actually a little indignant, because I started taking singing lessons years ago - I put the time in!

All of us have read the stories about young people in Hollywood and all the challenges they have to confront there, and I think that artistically, I really didn't understand the commercial side of the film business, so I went back to a purely artistic setting.

I don't prefer much of film over stage. The only thing I prefer is the paycheck.

I've just been really lucky to not be too much of a stereotype.

With acting, it was really more of a general kind of experience of really just loving being in the theater.

You have your structure, but within it, it gets fuller and you can highlight other parts of the performance.

I was exposed to the arts, but there was no one in my family who was an artist.

A man like Wilde was not free to live out of the closet as a homosexual, and women in general were not able to be truly themselves; there was no place for a woman's voice to be heard or for her to express her sexuality.

I am really not of the school of naturalism. I like style, and you can use more style in theater than in film roles. I love to sink my teeth into a part.

Comedy is what I really want to do and propel.

I can't tell stories to save my life. I like to have fun, and I go out and have a lot of fun. But I'm not really an entertainer that way. I'm much more shy.

I don't prefer much of film over stage... The only thing I prefer is the paycheck.

I feel like theatre gives me the grounding, and keeps me alive, basically. Film gives me the thrill, and it's like a one night stand. But I do enjoy being around people who love it so much.

I find that protein wakes up my brain and gets me ready for the rest of my day.

I love being outside and getting fresh air.

I never got into coffee.

I prefer to express myself physically, or non-verbally. I prefer just to react without having a lot of dialogue.

I think the fantasy of being a movie star is more powerful than the reality. So, for me, even if it's not a great film or a great play I'm doing, to know that you went for it. You had an experience that made you grow artistically and personally. What's really satisfying is knowing that you did a good job.

I'm a person who has to eat! I graze every few hours.

I'm not that big a fan of marriage as an institution and I don't know why women need to have children to be seen as complete human beings.

I've just been lucky. I'd like to have more choices, and I'd like to have a leading part.

Singing really oxygenates your blood. You stretch your lungs and take in much more air into them than before. It's really good for your health.

You can't really be old in L.A., it's kind of like a crime.

Letting journalism be from the perspective of the journalist. It's usually a no-no, and journalists are encouraged to be completely objective.

I've got three sisters, five aunties, and my mom. It must have had an influence on me growing up.

Look folks, we know who built this country and we know who is going to rebuild it. It's you. Instead of vilifying you, we should be thanking you. We owe you.

It's all about people. It's about networking and being nice to people and not burning any bridges. Your book is going to impress, but in the end it is people that are going to hire you.

I had just been in some repressive situations - the black middle-class college scene and the crazy United States Air Force - and so I just felt like getting out of that. I thought, now, that I wanted to be a writer. I had something that I wanted to do, that I was interested in doing, so I wanted to pursue that.

I always want to give my best and do the best I can. I know when I have sung my best and when I haven't. There can be stresses and hassles with time travel and press attention. I just have to adapt and find a way of dealing with it.

It's no secret that I love to talk, but the real secret is I love to listen, too.

I'm not interested in meeting people's expectations, and I'm not interested in pleasing people.

Even as a small child, I wondered why the Dominican nuns who educated me were subservient to the Jesuit priests who educated my brothers.

In my vocal, I think you can hear something of my earlier times when I'd sing in subway halls for the echo and perform doo-wop on street corners. But I had a lot of influences, too - singers like Sam Cooke, Brook Benton and Roy Hamilton.

Anything you can imagine, you can put on film.

French is the language that turns dirt into romance.

I was never too much into school. I liked lunchtimes and breaks, but nah, I hated sitting at a desk. I was always looking out of the window, looking at my watch, thinking about when I could play football.

We were an ill-matched pair, my husband and I, from the very outset; he, with very high ideas of a husband's authority and a wife's submission, holding strongly to the 'master-in-my-own-house theory,' thinking much of the details of home arrangements, precise, methodical, easily angered and with difficulty appeased.

I think it's also safe to say genre TV and movies were a big influence - the first stories I ever tried to write were Godzilla fan fiction when I was in elementary school, complete with elaborate maps of Monster Island made with multiple sheets of typing paper and nearly six feet wide. I kind of wish I still had those.

As far as superhero stories, what's appealing is of course that aspect of wish fulfillment. I mean, you start out reading them as a kid, and a couple things jump out at you - there are heroes out there, and you wish you could run into a phone booth and change your life, or be like Peter Parker and put on a mask and become a hero.

To adapt a play into a movie, you have to change it.

NATO cannot accept that the unconstitutional coup in Ukraine has not led to the subjugation of the whole Ukrainian nation.

Break my face, my back, my arms, my neck. But please don't break my heart.

Greatness comes from fear. Fear can either shut us down and we go home, or we fight through it.

If you don't like being a doormat then get off the floor.