Whenever an earthquake or tsunami takes thousands of innocent lives, a shocked world talks of little else. I'll never forget the wrenching days I spent in Haiti last year for Save the Children just weeks after the earthquake.
For me, already being part of a single parent household and knowing it was just me and my mom, you'd would wake up times and hope that the next day you'd be able to be alongside your mother because she was out trying to make sure that I was taken care of. But all I cared about was her being home.
My dad was enlisted in the Navy; my mother was a nurse. It just was never a thought process. It was just go to the best school you can go to, do the best you possibly can do, and be the best person you can possibly be, and I think our faith had a lot to do with that.
I don't like being stagnant. I want to continue to grow and just be better at what I do, and the only way to do that is to keep stepping outside of your comfort zone.
When you have an acoustic bass in the ensemble it really changes the dynamic of the record because it kind of forces everybody to play with a greater degree of sensitivity and nuance because it just has a different kind of tone and spectrum than the electric bass.
I knew that I was gay, I knew it. I just couldn't see myself as a gay woman, even though that's where my heart was.
When you go to the park, there is no horizon - just Disneyland.
Sometimes I enjoy just photographing the surface because I think it can be as revealing as going to the heart of the matter.
In soaps, people come back from the dead all the time, to the point where death is just a bus stop.
Maybe it's egocentric or whatever, but when I'm playing Beethoven, Bach, Hendrix, or whoever it is, in the end, it just feels like my own music and I'm making it up as I'm going along.
When we have 'second thoughts' about something, our first thoughts don't seem like thoughts at all - just feelings.
I was just after Generation X. I missed the John Hughes movies; I had to watch them on TBS.
The problem is that when government controls the economy, those who can influence government keep winning, and everybody else just stays the same.
In a relationship, the sum of your parts should equal more than just you by yourself. He needs to bring something new and different to the table to up the ante.
People don't just want a mindless flick with a superstar; they want to connect more deeply.
I guess the way to keep a grip on reality is just to take breaks in between albums like most normal bands do. Go home and be a person and hang out with your friends. Do separate things and get back to earth and write songs and go out there again.
I believe this with all my heart: The greatest coach of all time in my eyes is my mom. She's instilled in me a toughness and a perseverance and just a never-quit mentality, and I thank her every day for providing me, for what she sacrificed her life for.
I love exercise, but I didn't join a single sports club as a student - I have no hand-eye coordination. Things like yoga are amazing, but anything with a ball just isn't for me.
My only ritual is to just sit down and write, write every day.
I don't trip on that much. I just like to enjoy life and be happy.
You can get fake fur, which, if that's what you want - if you want that fur look - it looks just the same. It's really unnecessary to skin an animal when you can get something that looks just the same without hurting anything.
I've been really aware of how important it is to me to just stay in the moment and enjoy it while it lasts. Because that's all you've got. If it ends, I'll move on to doing something else. If it lasts, great.
You don't always have to be doing something. You can just be, and that's plenty.
When you're caught up in the storm or, you know, just the turmoil of everything that there is another side and you do get through it. And you know, just standing by the truth and doing the right thing.
When I look back on my twenties, I just remember being afraid of everything, and in my thirties, I'm actually excited by things. And if things don't work out, you know, by the time you've hit your thirties, you've had your fair share of disappointments.
Because I went to Chouinard, which then became CalArts, I became a multi-discipline artist - it wasn't just about painting, it was about media and performance.
My mother just died at 103, so that's a start. You should live 20 years longer than your parents.
When you have a good director, it's just wonderful.
I'm not a big believer in a thing called luck. I believe it has a lot to do with fate and just really having a vision of the way you would see your life.
When I'm writing I just think there's only the page and me and nobody else.
I've always done pretty well in auditions. I just go in and give it my best shot.
We take men's obligation to earn money, and when they do it well, we blame them for having power and being oppressors. And when they don't do it all, women just don't marry men who are reading 'I'm Okay, You're Okay' in the unemployment line.
I've always loved film and wanted to work in film. I just love working and creating new characters, and trying different genres and different things. For me, I just love to work and I love movies.
Getting your writing criticized can be a lot like getting skinned, and you respond to it just as enthusiastically.
They've hit us and we've got to hit back hard, and I'm not just talking about the terrorists.
Now I'm an old Christmas tree, the roots of which have died. They just come along and while the little needles fall off me replace them with medallions.
