I get a little sick of myself as a solo artist. I get a little bit bored.
I have had that same experience where there are several people who have come up in my life at the right time and have made critical contributions to how I see the world and how I see myself.
I became an actress because I'm lazy. I wouldn't apply myself at school.
I consider myself a really good racquetball player. I'm sure that I would get waxed by some actually good racquetball players, but I consider myself a pretty versatile athlete.
There are other people in 'Dreamgirls' who are born-again Christians. We have a Bible study class once a week. It was started by Charles Bernard and myself. We meet at the theater.
After studying the subject for years, watching countless YouTube videos of Scientology handlers filming critics and journalists, it felt amazing to be on the receiving end myself: I felt like I'd been blooded.
I grew up dancing, so that was always my first dream. But I also have a passion for acting. I would love to step inside of a character and be somebody that I'm not, because I feel like it just gives me an outlet to express myself without being me.
My greatest achievement is being able to write records that are real snapshots of what's going on in my life. I won't repeat myself for the sake of commerce, or to please other people.
I've always considered myself lucky that I do not have many passions. There's only one pursuit that I have ever truly loved, and that pursuit is writing. This means, conveniently enough, that I never had to search for my destiny; I only had to obey it.
I was once sitting on a tube, and someone was playing my song so loudly through their ear phones next to me. I just stayed silent and chuckled to myself.
I think of myself as a writer as much as I think of myself as a linguist and an academic. I really enjoy writing - playing with language and getting just the right metaphor.
I've always freelanced as an actor, and you always have to worry about the next paycheck. When I booked 'True Blood,' I promised myself I would take advantage of the fact that for the first time in my career, I could afford to turn down big money to go and do small, character-driven indies.
Freedom used to be something that I dreamed of but never allowed myself to fully imagine.
Rationally, I was convinced that the universe without God made no sense, but that simply was not the same as believing. But I also knew that I could not argue myself, or be argued, into faith.
I do this acting thing mostly for myself. I like to make a connection and communicate with the audience to make myself feel less lonely. I also do it to develop my own character, so sometimes I do it to just be away in a certain area that I've never been to. But mostly, the story has to do something for me.
I actually did go through severe depression and anxiety attacks where I couldn't sleep for weeks. It was definitely several months of being not myself.
I play and I've played in heavy bands, but when I write for myself, I don't particularly feel like writing huge rock riffs. It just doesn't work for me and my voice.
Over and over again, I'm trying to express or communicate these big and small struggles to the world, and really to myself.
I'm doing what I wanted to do since I was a young girl. I pinch myself every day to make sure it's true.
I need to fill myself up with real life. That's kind of the well I draw from.
School was always a major player in my personal journey. It allowed me to open up to the world, and also social mobility. It allowed me to enrich myself, to read, learn and understand.
Here's a habit I never thought I'd develop: I gravitate to anything online that's marked 'most popular' or 'most e-mailed.' And I hate myself a little bit every time I do.
I only listen to myself, I hate to say. I don't got time to listen to nobody else. There's a lot of guys out there, but I only listen to myself.
I like to take care of myself and know what foods I should be eating.
I've always been a fan of Korean cinema but never really pursued it, as I wanted to pave my way here in the States. I figured, once I established myself here, Korea might take notice. And it did.
The more I can be the character, the further I can get away from myself, the better.
I'm Egyptian and Muslim, but I grew up in the West, far from my Arab roots. I began 'Sex and the Citadel' to help outsiders - like myself - to better comprehend this pivotal part of the world, up-close and personal.
I was trained to serve the writer and director as an actor before I serve myself. Not to say that's gotten in my way, but that's a different way of working than most American actors work.
I'm really happy to be me, and I'd like to think people like me more because I'm happy with myself and not because I refuse to conform to anything.
Even if a story has nothing to do with my life, if I can recognise something of myself in the character and think, 'Oh yeah, that's what I'd do...' Yeah, that's what I look for.
I hate watching myself on screen! I absolutely hate it, it's so hard to watch. I can see myself in magazines, but watching on TV or movies is like, 'Ugh.'
I don't think of myself as funny. I think of myself as rather grave, actually. And I'm suspicious of fun. I never quite know what that is or how to deal with it or how to generate it. That's my fault. I know it's a burden on the people I'm with. It's tiresome.
Growing up, I wasn't as comfortable expressing myself as I am now, and I think that's why I chose acting: because it's acceptable to have your feelings. It's a place that they want you to feel. Whereas in life, growing up, it was 'Be quiet!' and 'Keep it to yourself.'
My strength is my unpredictablity. I can wrestle, I can strike, I can move fast, and I do a good job of covering up. And because of my experience, I'm able to put myself in good positions in the ring. The guys I fight, they have to be ready for anything.
I definitely use my music to kind of alleviate my stress and get me through specific moments in time where I'm just being really tough on myself.
Diverse forms of memory can have a variety of gaps. Thus it is possible for me to represent a past situation to myself and be unable to remember my inner behavior in this situation. As I transfer myself back into this situation, a surrogate for the missing memory comes into focus.
