No matter how dark things may get in a story, I feel it's the responsibility of the storyteller to leave the audience with at least a shred of hope.
It's one of the hardest things in life - choosing your own name.
I think we learn the most from imperfect relationships - things like forgiveness and compassion.
As a beat reporter covering the CIA and intelligence world after the terrorist attacks of 2001, I could sense that many things I couldn't see or understand were changing, expanding, getting so big they were difficult to manage.
One of the things I thought a lot about was how can we get the views, for instance, the main plaza, you look up to Telegraph Hill from there and therefore it would be a disaster to close that view off.
In Chicago, actors start up companies and get together and produce things, and there's a really rich, vibrant non-Equity theater scene out there.
Facing sexism and racism and classism and transphobia, there are ways to choose to act in those situations, and there shouldn't be a prescriptive list of things that you have to say.
I thought it was really funny that half the people I autographed things for said, 'Autograph the back of my phone.' I was like, 'What? Really? Seriously?' They didn't have anything else.
Limitations are something that I latch onto - like working in genre, or if you're writing TV, there are act breaks, there's a length of time it's supposed to be. The restrictions of budget and sets can be really useful. When you can have everything, it's very hard to make things feel real and lived in.
People are very open-minded about new things - as long as they're exactly like the old ones.
I have to avoid things like 'World of Warcraft' or 'Minecraft', otherwise I'd never get any work done.
Our dreams are made of real things, like a shoebox full of photographs.
On Memorial Day, I was out floating on Lake Norman and came across Denny Hamlin. We struck up a conversation, and one of the first things we were talking about was how much it helped him when he started racing the Cup car and how much it helped his Nationwide program.
I'm more straightforward, and I speak up more than I did before. When I was younger, I wouldn't speak up as much, but now that I'm a mom, things have changed.
I love spending time with my friends and family. The simplest things in life give me the most pleasure: cooking a good meal, enjoying my friends.
Sometimes with people their work is the most important thing to them, and sometimes the work enables you to do other things that are more important to you. I probably am closer to that.
When there's so many haters and negative things, I really don't care.
Feminism is rooted in racial rights and gender rights, and all of those things intersect, and to say that that's not something you can stand behind - it confuses me. I think it's a really great word.
I think shows that are completely dramatic are a lie. People use humor to cope. That is how we deal with things. In the darkest situations, there's humor. And if you don't show that, you're not being true to real life.
It's not easy to do morning TV. A lot of people think you just show up and be yourself, but one of the hardest things to do is be yourself when the camera comes on.
I feel like my comedy voice is to take the news and everything that's happening and put a funny spin on it or to pick out the things I find funny about it.
Quite frankly, I think political correctness is the worst form of censorship. You're not allowed to speak your mind unless you're black, or unless you're a terrorist, or unless you're an Arab or a minority people. Then you can say what you like. But if you are like a lot of us you are not supposed to say certain things.
If things are not so good, you may be one to imagine something better. For me, I was able to imagine myself as in a role of greater importance than I would seem to be ordinarily.
Here is my theory on this one. If you write things down, if there is a mystery and you try and explain it, once you've written it down for permanent, in due time, it'll be proven stupid.
My mom reminds me that all things are possible.
I do cook a lot for myself. I tend to cook from scratch, a lot of stews and things, lots of beans, because beans have got lots of protein in them but not fat. I am partial to a bit of cheese - I try to limit myself in my cheese intake, but I do enjoy a good smelly cheese. Stinking Bishop is a good one.
I guess people expect or figure me to be a lot of different things.
If you have this reputation you can sit back and endure it, or you can try to do things with it.
There's no point regretting things. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. Life's too short to worry about things I've said.
I had to get some things right in my personal life. And once I got my family on the same page, to understand who I am and what I do for a living, I asked my oldest daughter, 'What do you think about Daddy coming back?' And she said, 'I didn't think you were done. I want you to win the Super Bowl.'
I look at things as 'Everything is meant to be.'
My Daddy was my hero. He was always there for me when I needed him. He listened to me and taught me so many things. But most of all he was fun.
You do things for yourself, and you do things for other people, and you hope that these things coincide.
The first time I came to London on my own, I was 15. I was absolutely oblivious to so many things. I had no expectations, no fears. I just came to do a National Youth Theatre season one summer. It was just brilliant.
Photoshop makes things look beautiful just as you have special effects in movies. It's just a part of life.
You want to have a toy and another toy, and that's not maturity. The biggest things in life are not materials.
