It's kind of shocking to me, actually, that I've almost been stereotyped, in a way - physically - because, I didn't get good grades in school; I got in a lot of fights. I wear glasses because I don't want something tugging my eyeball, but I wouldn't consider myself a 'nerd.' I don't know what really makes someone a nerd.
My dad never wanted to push what he did on us. It was more, for him, if you chose to do this, then we're going to do it, and we're going to get it right. It was, 'I know how to do it. I'm going to teach you how to do it because I want you to be good at it.'
In the Soyuz, the little Russian capsule, you can actually hear the banging of the big shield, the big heat shield on the bottom, as it slowly erodes away from the heat and pieces of it fly off like sparks across your window, and it's an interesting thing to ride through, you know.
I've got people around me that let me know when something really good happens.
Bad improv happens with people who are inexperienced with each other and don't know the craft that well. But bad stand-up is something that could happen to someone at any level in their career.
You know, I was the class clown in Catholic school, but I never thought I would make a living out of it!
I was on a panel with Marshall McLuhan in Canada. Someone says, 'Mr. McLuhan, I read your book, and I disagree with you.' And he says, 'Oh, you read my book? Then you only know half the story.'
You know, the funny thing about Lorne and that show is that, you can go over one million things, but in a business of bean counters, he still likes to laugh at small things and creates a show around it.
If you're a writer, you know that the stories don't come to you - you have to go looking for them. The old men in the lobby: that's where the stories were.
One of the things that I'd like to get back to that I did as a younger actor was to work on, you know, a rep season for a summer where you did two or three Shakespeares, and you'd do a couple of either new plays or classic plays, and you did a different one almost every night.
We know about every massacre that has taken place close to the present, but the ones in the distant past are like trees falling in the forest with no one to hear them.
I don't come from an artistic family, so I didn't know what theater was. I was working on Wall Street in the '90s, and I went to see 'Appointment With a High-Wire Lady' at Ensemble Studio Theatre, and it affected me so deeply. It changed everything I thought about the arts. I quit banking and became an actor.
Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know.
I'm like, 'Would you be the person in the room that would boo when Dylan went electric? I know I wouldn't. Or are you the person that left The Beatles after 'She Loves You,' or 'Drive My Car?' You weren't on board for 'Revolution 9' or 'Day In The Life,' were you?'
I know what a long shot race is like, and I'm willing to put the work in.
I had one of the best days of my life. I spent the afternoon with my two kids and my ex-wife at Serendipity. Then I came to the theater, and you know, I think I did the play the best I've ever done it.
In a leadership role in Iraq and in running my own business, what I've learned is if you don't listen, you're going to strike out. You're going to fail miserably. The people you work with have got to know you're engaged and you're listening.
People want to get to know you. I don't think America got a chance to know me in that short time.
I thought back to my middle-school experience of having slumber parties and watching Romeo + Juliet and staring at Leo and thinking about my first kiss and what I wanted it to be like. And when you have your first real love, it's an epiphany, you know? It's like a whole new world.
I'm just thankful that even at a young age, I got to experience something like 'X Factor,' and I got to meet enough people just to know that I needed to be patient until the right deal came around.
I'm like, 'Wow, I guess a lot of people didn't have this type of upbringing'... that old world technique of, you know, nothing's given to you, you've gotta work for everything you've done... It's just different from what I'm seeing today.
They expect a certain amount of leniency or mercy from me because I'm a woman, and if you've ever met my mother, you should know that's not even in the cards. She's much tougher than I am - she's a retired schoolteacher, so she's seen it all.
People criticize you for trying new things. I think, 'I'm new! I'm 22!' I don't know exactly what my sound is or what I want my album to sound like, so I'm not releasing it yet. While I'm experimenting, I'll let you in on the journey, and you can hear it for free.
I don't feel I have to charm somebody, I feel I want to know them; it's a different thing.
I know the Academy Awards are all about the art, and love, of movie making. But I have to say, my favorite part is the dresses!
I never knew how ugly and how stupid I was until, you know, we had Twitter.
Las Vegas audiences are swingers. They're drinkers and swingers, and they like to have a good time and party. I never had a bad audience in my career. Sometimes it may take a little longer to get them, you know. But I would get them. I'd get standing ovations... Everything is attitude. It's very important to always like what you're doing.
I know how to wrap my turban a little better now. In the beginning, it was a little weird.
We had a moment in the '40s and '50s, where female characters were very strong in film, where these incredible roles were written for women like Joan Crawford, like Bette Davis. But then there was a space of time where - I don't know why - it wasn't like that. It became difficult for women to find certain roles after a certain age.
I didn't really know you could make a living in songwriting. I was just very fortunate to have the opportunity to play a few songs for a guy there named Jimmy Ritchey. Through that meeting, I met another couple guys and ended up getting a publishing deal in Nashville.
When you know what men are capable of you marvel neither at their sublimity nor their baseness. There are no limits in either direction apparently.
For better or for worse, I just have to be on tour for some portion of the year. But it's not easy, you know. It's not easy on the people you love, and I understand when people look at this life and say this isn't sustainable.
I do suffer from depression, I suppose. Which isn't that unusual. You know, a lot of people do.
As I grow older, I become more and more of a Marxist - Groucho, that is. When you have lived two-thirds of your life, you know the value of a good joke.
I actually think of myself as quite a shy person, although I know I give the impression of someone much more confident. I think what I do have is a capacity to listen to the other, even if the other is an opponent. That leads, in all senses of the word, to an engagement.
Unlike any other time in our history, we have to know that staying in school and getting an education is the most important thing you can do.