My family, they're story tellers. My mom is Irish, and my dad is Italian. In my family, we weren't allowed to watch TV while we ate - we had to sit around the table and tell stories about our day.
When I was 16, the first book I ever actually purchased with my own money, in fact, and had read on my own time was 'Hunt for Red October' by Tom Clancy.
Had I pursued my education long enough to learn all the conventional dos and don'ts of starting a business, I often wonder how different my life and career might have been.
I had a kiss with Raquel Welch's daughter - she was a very naughty kisser.
Nobody is more worthy of love in the entire universe than you. I wish I had reminded myself of that more.
In my final year of college, I was interning with L'Oreal, when during one of the photo shoots, a photographer suggested I become a model. I was working under Smira Bakshi, who was this really cool chick, as she was loaded, had her fun, and was successful. I basically aspired to be her.
I had so many local shows before I came back to New York, which is the ideal place to do a national syndicated show. Then I spent five years trying to convince people to give me a shot in the syndication business.
When I left Tinder, I had no intention of getting back into the dating industry. What I ultimately wanted to do was start this contagious complimentary social network, where kindness was at the helm.
I've done two albums for Concord Records; one was with Al Jarreau and it did very well for us. The second album was called 'Songs And Stories,' and it had good songs and good performances, but I promised them I would do an album that was more jazz-oriented.
I grew up with a strong set of values - and one was never judging someone by how much money they had.
Some people don't realize that I've had a career pre-commercials.
I grew up in a very relaxed environment in one sense, without many rules. My mother had a problem knowing where to draw the line, which caused a chaotic and hectic home life. A lot of people took advantage of my mom.
I moved back to Buffalo in 2009, and I had this moment where I wanted to have the best of both worlds. I wanted to be able to be in church and cook at home but then still get on a plane and fly back to New York and be this supermodel.
The most common form of giantism is a condition called acromegaly, and acromegaly is caused by a benign tumor on your pituitary gland that causes an overproduction of human growth hormone. And throughout history, many of the most famous giants have all had acromegaly.
I think that sometimes, romantic comedies have to be really broad, and that the plot of people falling in and out of love or whatever is not enough. 'Enough Said' had that stuff, but I wanted it to be fun and funny while also grounded in reality.
I understood that the Church had a Heart, and that this Heart was burning with love.
Lyft Line came out of the vision that we've had from the beginning, which is how do we get the most affordable ride to everyone? Eighty percent of seats at all times on the road are empty. In Los Angeles, average car occupancy is 1.1, and if it were 1.3, there would be no traffic.
As a child, our house had a backyard lined with roses tended vigilantly by my mother. So the fragrance fills me with nostalgia for my youth.
More than anything else, my mother wanted to be an actress - a famous actress - which in the 1950s was all about being young, sexy, and available. She was all that, and more. She had big blue eyes, alabaster skin, a heart-shaped face, a beautiful figure. She was just a knockout.
When I left my home to become an actress, my father didn't give me a single penny. I struggled a lot, and they had no idea what I went through. My grandfather even asked me to drop my surname when he learnt I was joining films.
Composers need words, but they do not necessarily need poetry. The Russian composer, Aleksandr Mossolov, who chose texts from newspaper small ads, had a good point to make. With revolutionary music, any text can be set to work.
My mom, she was a very, very soft woman. It was hard for her to yell or even curse. But when it came to fighting for her kids, she found a strength she didn't always know she had.
When I was young, I had minimum wage jobs as a busboy, flipping burgers and parking cars.
To me, you know, from my childhood I always had a fascination for United States.
I was, if you like, a successful schoolboy in that I had a degree of talent in all the required things that make you a success at school.
I've been asked a lot why didn't 'Ruined' go to Broadway. It was the most successful play that Manhattan Theatre Club has ever had in that particular space, and yet we couldn't find a home on Broadway.
I loved gymnastics. I was eager to compete. I was hungry to go out there and be the best in the world, and I had that determination.
My father had many, many veterans over to the house, and the older I got the more I appreciated their sacrifice.
I was appointed by Governor Gray Davis to the Los Angeles Superior Court and by President Obama to the district court and then the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In securing the state court appointment, I think it really helped that I had some trial experience.
A lot of my struggles with nutrition date back to my swimming days. I was a super-skinny young girl who would go through hours of intense training. Afterward, I'd be famished, but I had a two-hour trip home before dinner. When I did my hardest workouts, I often ate less; I was too tired to think about food.
The primary school I attended in Shanghai was a very liberal one, established by scholars who had return from an education in France. The children of leading families were enrolled there, including the son of a well-known man believed to be a top gangster of the underworld!
As a young physician in the mid-'80s, caring for people who had contracted H.I.V., I lost two of my patients to suicide at a time when the virus was doing very little harm to them. I have always thought of them as having been killed by a metaphor, by the burden of secrecy and shame associated with the disease.
I love Scientology. I've been involved for 38 years, and I don't think I'd be here without it because I've had a lot of losses and different negative things that have happened over the years and it really got me through brilliantly.
I always had a passion for writing, but I always visualized other artist singing my lyrics, I never visualized myself.
I played baseball in high school, and in some parallel universe, if I had not gone into filmmaking, I may have been the coach cursing at the kids.
I think I became more productive through not having children. I never really had the desire to have them. My husband didn't want them either, so it worked out well.
