Whenever I told women - friends or acquaintances - that I had to go to divorce court, they'd invariably, without skipping a beat, ask, 'What are you going to wear?' It was like instant female solidarity: of course it mattered what I was going to wear.
I have not tried for a career that's showy. I have always tried to layer things in and not push it. I love an underperformance, where you're so entrenched in who that person is that you're living in it.
I love the romance of the '40s. It was the perfect time to live. Technology wasn't so advanced that it made life more difficult, but it was just enough that you can send a phone call or a telegram. And people still took pride in how they looked. The men got dressed up and the women got dressed up and they took care of themselves.
As an actor, you're supposed to take jobs that will challenge you or force fans to see you in a different light. By the '90s, I wasn't really an actor anymore. I was someone who went on the road with these gigantic concerts.
There's nobody on this earth who can tell you that what you're feeling is wrong. They can tell you it's different to what they're feeling.
As an artist, you know as a person in the public eye, period, you kind of have a responsibility to the younger kids that are watching and emulating what you do.
I always laugh the hardest at the stuff you see in day-to-day life. It's great when somebody can tell a joke that really makes you laugh hard, but to see some kind of personal interaction that no one could write is so good. Those are always the things that make me laugh.
The comic book world is so dangerous, you know what I mean? You say one thing and people - they're ravenous - they are very opinionated fans. But they're great fans.
Doing the show was like painting the George Washington Bridge. As soon as you finished one end, you started right in on the other.
You can do and use the skills that you have. The schools need you. The teachers need you. Students and parents need you. They need your actual person: your physical personhood and your open minds and open ears and boundless compassion, sitting next to them, listening and nodding and asking questions for hours at a time.
I try to work out six days a week, you know, weights two days a week, and I try to run those six days, so I get good cardio.
It's possible and available to any artist to be himself or herself on their own terms, to be accepted and embraced by black people. You don't have to be a thug to get love from black people.
Try and understand what part you have to play in the world in which you live. There's more to life than you know and it's all happening out there. Discover what part you can play and then go for it.
The first year with the success that we had and let me point out that the time frame changes depending on which decade you look at it. In the seventies acts were kind of expected to do an album a year. If you look at the Beatles they were doing three a year.
As I've explained to my wife many times, you have to kill your wife or mistress to get on the front page of the papers.
I discovered that the world frightens you with your shortcomings, but if you do not worry about it, you are liberated.
When you are pulling people out of the water and off of rooftops, there are no Republicans and no Democrats.
Publicity is like poison; it doesn't hurt unless you swallow it.
Anyone with a computer and a design program can create a page layout. But unless you're trained in design, it won't look very good and it won't communicate very well.
Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.
If you're in trouble, or hurt or need - go to the poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones.
The correction of silence is what kills; when you know you have transgressed, and your friend says nothing, and avoids your eye.
Marriage is miserable unless you find the right person that is your soulmate and that takes a lot of looking.
I think you could find some waves on the west side of Denmark, but I never tried it.
There's a pretty good chance that you're going to go down when you're on a motorcycle or if you're sky diving or whatever, but that happened before I even got this job, and I haven't sky dived since.
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
You know, nothing is ever happily-ever-after. Ever.
You hate to see yourself do one draft of a script and then have somebody else come back in and change what you've done.
I enjoy writing, sometimes; I think that most writers will tell you about the agony of writing more than the joy of writing, but writing is what I was meant to do.
I think you also understand that one of the key things that's got to be done in Iraq is to build a mentality of understanding that the military needs to be subordinate to civilian control and respectful of its own people.
You can look at that by comparing Medicare's growth rates to the private insurance world, to the other Federal programs that we run, by looking at the billions of dollars, not millions but billions of dollars, we waste every year.
I never felt that I was typecast, but I was concerned about it. I certainly made an effort to take as many parts in theater and film that resisted that. If you only learn how to act a certain kind of role, it is very difficult to grow as an actor.
I don't like the idea of 'I've played nine years, I've made some All-Star teams, I make the most money. I've got to be a leader.' That doesn't make you a leader. Treating people the right way is more important.
You can't have a decent food culture without a decent coffee culture: the two things grow up together.
I think that just because the show is titled 'Awkward Black Girl' and it is a predominantly black cast doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to relate to these people. We're all human beings. We all essentially go through the same things when it comes down to it, so I don't I think that should limit who watches it.
I handed my passport to the immigration officer, and he looked at it and looked at me and said, 'What are you?'
