I had a great time making the last movie, 'Eclipse.' We shot my back-story stuff from the 1930's. But I was waiting for 'Breaking Dawn' because I love the relationship Rosalie has with Jacob and the rest of her family and Bella. She also provides comic relief.
My grandmother was the matriarch. I was the youngest of all the men in my family, so I kind of used them as examples and kind of emulated what I saw them do. So I didn't have to deal with a lot of bullying because we had a lot of back-up, so to speak.
When I was a kid, my dad kind of forced me to sing the third harmony for our little family group, and I just kind of hated it. I just felt so uncomfortable on stage, too shy.
When I was five or six, I asked to sing at a big family party, and ever since I got up there in front of everyone in my suit - it had a blue collar, like in 'Scarface' - I had the bug.
I have a lot of good role models in my family for things off the court - like my older sister, who's a lawyer. I don't like writing papers, but she's helped me a lot. It's nice to have an art and business background because they tie together perfectly.
My kids - even though it's a family business - they don't even know what day or time 'Survivor' is even on. They just know it's on TiVo.
Those who say we should dismantle the role of Poet Laureate altogether, the trick they miss is that being called this thing, with the weight of tradition behind it, and with the association of the Royal family, does allow you to have conversations and to open doors, and wallets, for the good of poetry in a way that nothing else would allow.
As I grew older, I came to feel more responsible for any hardship or trouble my career caused my family.
People have told me, 'You shouldn't bring your daughter onto the podium, 'cause it's the workplace,' and things like that. But I'm not gonna really listen to that. I'm gonna do what I think is fun for me and my family, and everything'll be all right.
So to answer your question, I'm not entirely sure how I ended up where I am today, in the sense that nobody in my family is an actor. It just happened by mistake.
I used to be a classic workaholic, and after seeing how little work and career really mean when you reach the end of your life, I put a new emphasis on things I believe count more. These things include: family, friends, being part of a community, and appreciating the little joys of the average day.
And I think that that emphasis on keeping a family together, alike, I think it's important.
I was literally the black sheep of the family, and there were definitely moments of discomfort while my grandmother was working through her racism.
If you dream of something worth doing and then simply go to work on it and don't think anything of personalities, or emotional conflicts, or of money, or of family distractions; it is amazing how quickly you get through those 5,000 steps.
I had a friend whose family had dinner together. The mother would tuck you in at night and make breakfast in the morning. They even had a spare bike for a friend. It just seemed so amazing to me.
I'm the first person in my family to play poker.
I read a lot of fantasy. I adored 'Anne of Green Gables'. But my favourite books as a child were probably Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Little House' series, about a pioneer family in the mid-19th-century American west. I often thought of them as I was writing 'The Last Runaway'.
Negroes could be sold - actually sold as we sell cattle, with no reference to calves or bulls or recognition of family. It was a nasty business. The white South was properly ashamed of it and continually belittled and almost denied it. But it was a stark and bitter fact.
Music has always been in my family, but it was mainly keyboards. I learned to play classical piano, but when I first heard the amazing bass guitar of James Jamerson, who played on all the big Motown hits of the '60s and '70s, I knew bass guitar was my instrument.
The Bible says that Christians are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. On the job, in the grocery store, even among unsaved friends and family members, God's people are there to bring seasoning to an unsavory situation.
I don't have a long family history of good cooks in my family.
Growing up in a family of actors, what's great about it is that they're very supportive and they understand what it's like to be an actor - the rejections, the highs and lows... and having a common language with them is great because you have shorthand speech.
Having family responsibilities and concerns just has to make you a more understanding person.
I've been here for nine years, and over that time, these people have become like my family.
There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
I've been lucky enough to play many different roles from darker characters to family orientated shows to comedy.
Our life is all about the choices we make, and when I was looking for a mate for life, I really was looking for someone who was a family man, somebody who would embrace my girls as much as they were going to embrace me. I guess I just wasn't finished having children yet.
If you have any setback in your life, like not being in the England squad was for me - any setback, like losing a family member - everyone handles it in different ways. When I first wasn't included I was numb. I'd been the main England striker for years and years. It was really disappointing.
I've always been a strong family advocate. I had a wonderful family growing up.
I leave CNN with the utmost respect, love and admiration for the company and everyone who works here. This has been my family and shared endeavor for the past 27 years, and I am forever grateful and proud of all that we have accomplished.
If I won the lottery I'd start a charity that helped little family hardware stores, cobblers and fruit shops open in city centres.
I come from a family of writers. My mom had been a writer, nonfiction books, and her mother was a playwright in the 1930s and '40s. And my twin brother, Alexi, is a writer on 'The Following.'
I grew up in a one-parent family. I worked my way through college, I had very average grades and I was very average looking, but I've lived a remarkable life only because I believed I could.
Yeah, you got the family dog and the white picket fence, and you just think that's all there is. Some of us had to grow up in poverty-stricken urban neighborhoods, and we just had to adapt to our environment. I know that it's wrong. But people act like it's some crazy thing they never heard of. They don't know.
My desire to be valued is manifested in cultivating relationships with my friends and family.
Family relationships are just so fascinating - how they shape you as a person, how you can wound each other, how you're imprinted in a way by your family and the conditions under which you grow up.
