I think character is very much a product of where you live, who you are, what is happening in that time of your life, and I'm interested in those pressures, those forces. A political context, a social context, really determines if not who people are then how they treat one another and what they say, how they speak.
If life is a video game, then most of us have no chance of winning, if by winning you mean succeeding in a quest or saving a princess.
If beautiful movies can influence you to go out and hug your children, then we have to be honest and say that other movies can inspire you to do bad things.
I used to lie between cool, clean sheets at night after I'd had a bath, after I had washed my hair and scrubbed my knuckles and finger-nails and teeth. Then I could lie quite still in the dark with my face to the window with the trees in it, and talk to God.
I've got girlfriends who call me 'Raye' or 'L. Raye', but when somebody calls me 'Lisa', it's like, 'You've got two more times to say that and then I think you're disrespecting me and I'm going to have to cut you!'
I worry from the moment I take a job. I worry about how I'm going to do it, if I can do it... Then I walk on set and the director says, 'Roll', and all of a sudden, all of it disappears and it's all happening, and I relax, and I'm doing what I do, and I'm not even thinking about it.
As crime writers, we put these characters, year after year, book after book, through the most horrendous trauma, dealing with grief and death and loss and violence. We can't pretend that these things don't affect these characters; they have to. If they don't, then you're essentially writing cartoons.
I think if you are creative then it's an unstoppable thing. It just keeps coming throughout your entire life.
My to-do list is the only form of organization I have, other than my iCal. It's not all work stuff; it's a lot of movies that I want to watch sooner rather than later. I have a list that's like, 'Read an essay from this book, then this one, then go back to this one.'
I've always worked out. I've always gone to the gym. But it was always a chore, and it was always, like, 'Man, I've gotta go do this because if I don't I'll get all dumpy and out of shape and then no one will hire me for good roles.'
If I have to go around telling everyone how great I am, then there's something wrong with my act.
There is no clear place to draw the line once you eliminate the traditional marriage, and it's the same once you start putting limits on what guns can be used, then it's just really easy to have laws that make them all illegal.
All you need is one person in a group to be honest, and then slowly, very slowly, everyone else starts telling the truth. That's why our lecturers must be former members of Weight Watchers. They must have lost weight our way.
I was a teenager in '95, so I didn't dress like a woman then. I was really small. I remember wishing I wasn't wearing Gap Kids.
I love the '60s and sort of wish all design had stopped in 1967. That would be my dream. They were really just nailing it - everyone looked great - but then it started getting a bit slippery after that.
I was 16. In the middle of the night, I took a taxi to the Detroit train station - or maybe it was the Pontiac train station? - and got on a train to Chicago, then transferred to a train to San Diego where my boyfriend was living at the time.
I moved out to Los Angeles with the idea of becoming a director, which thousands, if not tens and hundreds of thousands, of people do, every year. It's a very competitive field, of course. I immediately got swept away into the visual side of things, starting with visual effects, and then designing.
Mining created Chile. The story of men who go down into the mountain and chip away at minerals in the darkness and then suffer an accident that leaves them at the mercy of that darkness is part of the DNA of Chile, an integral part of the country's history.
I went to Duke University in the medical track. And then I decided I wanted to do something more creative, so I switched to biochemistry at Nebraska.
You want success, and then when you do get it, you don't want it because of the attention.
You should live hoping you are going to offend people, because then you're doing something.
If you've been around as long as I have, watching the literary scene, then you know that who's in and who's out changes by the year. It's really a very fluid situation that requires that the person who is having the good luck now isn't having it a year or two from now.
We've got over 1 million merchants who have claimed their businesses on Foursquare, running specials and doing other things. What we want to do is take these tools used by the 50-100 national retailers and make them accessible to our 1 million merchants. Then you've got something really powerful.
I noticed that when my daughter was born, my son really, really liked her. But then as she started getting older, and as she started crawling around our house and touching different things that were his, sibling rivalry issues started appearing.
I want to go make a movie and be very present for that and give it everything I have, and after we're done, then the rest of the time is mine.
The art market was very different before the mid-1980s: then, art was all about passion, whereas now it's become a commodity.
Bad news: Complainers are rewarded for complaining. Indicative of the victim culture in which we live, people have not only come to expect something for nothing, but are then rewarded for how loudly they can ventilate their sense of having been victims of fraud.
My imam at the Central Mosque said there was no problem with making music. In fact, he encouraged me - he said if the songs are moral, not offensive, then go ahead.
On Monday and Thursday, I eat fewer than 500 calories a day; then I eat like a pig for the other five days. You 'surprise' the body: keep it guessing. I got the idea from a BBC documentary about this Indian man who seemed about 138 years old and said his secret was severe calorie restriction.
Broadway is the same as Hollywood. Every few years we say we reached the mountaintop, then we take two steps back.
When I was younger, my mum used to put fresh flowers in bath water instead of rubber ducks, and since then I had a love of perfumes.
I was a real tomboy for most of my life. Then I went through a really girlie period, then through a goth phase. I was so obsessed with my hair and makeup, and I was having so much fun as a teenager playing with my look.
The ethos of 50 years ago was that there was one kind of English that was right and everything else was wrong; one kind of access that was right and everything else was inferior. Then nobody touched language for two generations. When it gradually came back in, we didn't want to go back to what we did in the 1950s. There's a new kind of ethos now.
I've always said I never want to wear another uniform. I've always said that I owe it to the fans to retire as a Packer. I feel like I can still play, but if I can't play for my organization, then I can't play for anyone else.
Children International is bringing a lot of hope to families who start out with nothing. They have nothing. Then Children International comes in, puts them in school, gets them what they need.
A positive frame of mind will definitely enhance your travelling experience. If I'm not in a positive frame of mind then the whole thing definitely becomes more of a challenge for me.
