I'd been DJ-ing in these clubs in N.Y. and I hated everything that was coming out. So I decided I would make it myself. People were making mash-ups or remixes, but I was extra bored, so I actually started remaking these records from scratch.
I love to cook, it's one of my most favorite things in the world. That's why I stopped being a vegetarian - I didn't want to serve people things I hadn't tasted myself.
I depleted myself to the point where I had nothing left.
I really like acting but, just now, the more I read a script I find myself thinking I'd like to direct rather than act.
I feel I'm anonymous in my work. When I look at the pictures, I never see myself; they aren't self-portraits. Sometimes I disappear.
If I watch something, I want to be wondering what is going to happen next; I want to be engaged in a way that makes me ask questions and think about how I can relate myself to the characters and the issues that are there. But if it's just fluff, and everything is spelt out, I find it difficult to concentrate.
I honestly don't class myself as a songwriter. I've got 'musician' written on my passport. That's even funnier.
If I am still doing what I'm doing and I still have respect in this town, haven't done anything completely and utterly stupid, then I'll be happy with myself.
I was always a show-off - as a kid I was never afraid to make a fool of myself, and I guess that's still true.
I developed a resistance to authority. Not to discipline - I learned that. But to authority. I like to think for myself. And I like to cause trouble.
When the whole world has their eyes on you, if you say something that doesn't truly come from your spirit and your soul, or if you wear something that doesn't come from your spirit and your soul, it's an injustice to your position. And so, I'm really myself every single day and I do it because I know my fans would want me to.
I'm somebody who can laugh even at myself. That happens now and again, when I've made a mess of really simple things.
I found myself at the beginning of 'Mad Men,' because I wasn't a sample size, spending an exorbitant amount of money on a nice dress that I would never wear again because someone would say - 'Christina Hendricks wore this dress twice.'
I felt that I ostracized myself by my behavior, by the past, by living with all the regrets of my mistakes, that I sort of wore a hair shirt and beat myself up most of the day thinking and regretting why did I make such a mistake? Why have I made so many mistakes?
Well, actually, I don't consider myself a jazz legend or anything.
The education of my brother and myself was of paramount importance to my parents, and in addition to their strong encouragement, they were prepared to make any sacrifice to further our intellectual development.
What I loved about myself as a teenager is that I didn't know any better to be afraid or to be insecure.
In high school, I would classify myself as a theatre nerd. Always studying, reading and attending plays!
I think I just have this need to be a storyteller. That's why I wasn't a great dancer - I couldn't articulate a story. I was a better choreographer. I have the need to to just express myself in that way. I can't explain it.
You're not always happy with things that go on in life on a daily basis. There's nothing I can do. You've got to deal with it and still take care of myself.
As hard as it is and as tired as I am, I force myself to get dinner at least once a week with my girlfriends, or have a sleepover. Otherwise my life is just work.
No matter how many times people say it - 'Oh, I'm just writing this for myself' 'Oh, I'm just doing this for myself' - nobody's doing it for themselves! You're doing it for an audience. So whether I'm performing or writing a book or playing music, it's definitely to be put out there and to be received in some way, definitely.
God has blessed me. I've been given a lot. I'm at peace with myself. It's time to give back.
As a young actor, people were trying to define who I was before I really knew that for myself. But I still remember thinking, 'This is what I love doing, and I hope I'm going to be able to do it forever.'
Translation makes me look at how a poem is put together in a different way, without the personal investment of the poem I'm writing myself, but equally closely technically.
I don't think of myself as a director or writer. I think of myself as a filmmaker.
I've always been interested in a lot of things, and a lot of things at the same time, and I always tried to explain them to myself. I ask a lot of questions.
I consider myself very lucky that I could live my life through all the ups and downs.
I simply think that water is the image of time, and every New Year's Eve, in somewhat pagan fashion, I try to find myself near water, preferably near a sea or an ocean, to watch the emergence of a new helping, a new cupful of time from it.
I basically did comedy there for about a year, and then moved to New York. If I had it to do over again, I would have booked myself on the road for at least a year.
I don't really consider myself a novelist, it just came out purely by accident.
When I was younger, I thought I had to shut myself off, work really hard to cry. I learned after a while that that's just not... You know, often in life, you cry when you're caught off-guard. That's where I need to be when I'm acting, too.
And I had this big, long list of what I wanted in a guy but I realized I didn't stack up to the list myself.
Material things are not helpful after a certain degree of saturation. So you turn to other products. I think that therapy is a product that can transform you. But why does it need to be packaged as a product? Why can't I work on myself with my friends and family?
I have referred to myself as an accidental activist on more than one occasion.
There's nothing that scares me more than, like, being in the ocean by myself.
