You can map your life through your favorite movies, and no two people's maps will be the same.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you'll have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either of them might run out.

Like many women my age, I am 28 years old.

Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere.

The movies we love and admire are to some extent a function of who we are when we see them.

You can map your life through your favorite movies, and no two people's maps will be the same.

Linda Tripp has shown that a true friend is an archivist, a biographer.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. The older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Every day each of us wakes up, reaches into drawers and closets, pulls out a costume for the day and proceeds to dress in a style that can only be called preposterous.

Good art is art that allows you to enter it from a variety of angles and to emerge with a variety of views.

In twenty years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

Barbie is just a doll.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, don't put up with those who are reckless with yours.

You can figure out who you were by which movies you loved when.

Don't waste time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind.

TV happens. And once it's happened, it's gone. When it's gone, you move on, no tears, no tantrums, no videotape.

'The Hunger Games' isn't for everybody. But neither is 'Anna Karenina.'

A line from one of my 1997 columns - 'Do one thing every day that scares you' - is now widely attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, though I have yet to see any evidence that she ever said it and I don't believe she did. She said some things about fear, but not that thing.

Chicago is constantly auditioning for the world, determined that one day, on the streets of Barcelona, in Berlin's cabarets, in the coffee shops of Istanbul, people will know and love us in our multidimensional glory, dream of us the way they dream of San Francisco and New York.

For some Chicago expats, food is the medicine that blunts the pain of separation.

Here's a thing about the death of your mother, or anyone else you love: You can't anticipate how you'll feel afterward. People will tell you; a few may be close to right, none exactly right.

I couldn't have foreseen all the good things that have followed my mother's death. The renewed energy, the surprising sweetness of grief. The tenderness I feel for strangers on walkers. The deeper love I have for my siblings and friends. The desire to play the mandolin. The gift of a visitation.

On an average day, we allow ourselves the fiction that we own a piece of our workplace. That's part of what it takes to get the job done. Deeper down, we know it's all on loan.

One thing you might want to learn before you attend the world's largest ukulele lesson is how to say ukulele.

Opening day. All you have to do is say the words and you feel the shutters thrown wide, the room air out, the light pour in. In baseball, no other day is so pure with possibility. No scores yet, no losses, no blame or disappointment. No hangover, at least until the game's over.

The first gay person I ever met was surely not the first gay person I ever met.

Worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.

Chicago is constantly auditioning for the world determined that one day on the streets of Barcelona in Berlins cabarets in the coffee shops of Istanbul people will know and love us in our multidimensional glory dream of us the way they dream of San Francisco and New York.

Understand that friends come and go but with a precious few you should hold on. The older you get the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, and don't put up with people that are reckless with yours.

Replace the words "have to" with "get to" and watch how the cold rain on your life changes to sunshine.

My favorite singer to this day is Nat King Cole. I've tried to emulate his phrasing. It is so absolutely beautiful to listen to his lovely voice.

My romantically favorite era is 78, 79 listening to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 4, the live tapes, echo chamber and break beats.

My favorite actor is Wallace Beery.

If I'm out trailriding, I have a favorite motorcycle. Riding on the road, I've got a favorite. If I'm jumping, I have a favorite, and if I'm racing, I have a favorite.

My favorite animal is steak.

Robert Altman's Nashville is my all-time favorite film because it covers all the bases - it's original, moving, and has something to say, but also funny and incredibly entertaining.

I felt like I was making a record under the radar, and that is my favorite way to do anything.

My favorite thing is still journalism. I'm almost 50. This has been my life ever since I was in college.

My favorite comedians were Jimmy Durante, George Burns, senior citizens.

I'm very lucky to work in so many different arenas of the entertainment industry and I do enjoy them all, but making music - original music - in the studio or live onstage is definitely my favorite thing to do.

Alison Krauss is definitely my favorite singer that's ever lived. I've never heard anyone like her.

My favorite type of music to sing and to listen to, you know, rock. It's not always metal, but you know, half the time it is. Metal's cool, you know? Not everybody on 'American Idol' listens to metal.

It's the sense of what family is at the dinner table. It was the joy of knowing mother was in the kitchen making our favorite dish. I wish more people would do this and recall the joy of life.

Life: my favorite occupation.

My favorite actors when I was a kid were in their '60s. Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne.

My favorite characters are the ones that are the most successful movies.

What a dog I got, his favorite bone is in my arm.

I have always loved science fiction. One of my favorite shows is 'Star Trek.' I like the trips, where it drops my mind off, because they give you a premise and all of a sudden, you say, 'Oh!' and I'm fascinated by it.