I am spiritual but not massively religious, and I don't go to church. If someone said 'What religion are you?' I would say 'Christian.' But I don't practice.
The thing about Sondheim is that it does get very cerebral. You do need a faculty with words and a love for the lyrics to not just pull it off, but to have an appreciation for it.
One's politics are part of one even when one is writing. But if I want to say anything about the state of civil society, I will write an essay. The responsibilities you feel as a novelist are literary ones, I think, not civic ones. And I think politicians are interesting to write about.
I suppose I have had more advantages and privileges than most of you, who are slaves have ever known, and I believe more than many white people have enjoyed, for which I desire to bless God, and pray that he may bless those who have given them to me.
Obviously when you cast someone who hasn't acted before it can be a massive opportunity for them.
The best gift you can give a baby is a full nine months of pregnancy.
If you're very open to watching the world go by, with people's different tics, you absorb it all without realizing it and find ways to put something into your character. I'm not sure I'm always aware I'm mimicking someone.
I was taught from a very early age that it was probably the most American thing you can do is to question what's going on and to try to fix things that you see that aren't right. I believed that as a young person, and I believe that today.
If I hadn't been fair, I would never have made the $6 billion in real estate deals that I did. I mean, if you're not fair, people don't want to deal with you.
You learn a lot about people when you live together.
I think fans are going to get everything you'd expect from 'The Office', from awkwardness, to a lot of humor and heart.
You cannot be in pretend for people to like you.
I was a rapper and a DJ, and if you wanted to be involved in hip-hop, you had to be involved in the sonic, the kinetic and the visual aspects. The visual was graffiti.
Once you learn how to say no, that's about the only place that you'll have control of your work and what you do.
I think the only way you learn is to surround yourself with people that are better than you.
I think most memoirs, though they purport to be about this particular time or this person you met, are really about the effect that person or time had on you.
I think the older you get, the more you know about life, and the more you learn about yourself and you become comfortable in your own skin. So the older I'm getting, the more fun I'm having.
Go out there and see where the world needs your touch. That kind of meaning not only makes you feel more connected to your environment on a local scale, but also to yourself - whether you can operate from something beyond the definition that others might place on you.
I am concerned about the plight of the working poor... If doctors are not paid for seeing those patients, doctors will not go to rural Alabama because you can't expect a doctor to go to rural Alabama and lose money.
When you go to an audition, don't hang on to it because no matter how well you feel it went or how badly, you just never know what the outcome is going to be.
I am a bit of a Valley girl, so I say 'you know' and 'like' too much.
Trust your gut. You know yourself, so don't let somebody else tell you who you are.
I hate it when people tell you you're good when you know that you're not.
My wife and I got married on 12/12/12 in Las Vegas, and she was wearing a Slayer T-shirt. That tells you what kind of woman I'm lucky enough to be with.
I know, as an actor, you have to negotiate, but I can't handle the whole idea that art and commerce are synonymous. It drives me nuts.
I'm getting older; you realise you are on the countdown of what you are doing, so performing means more than it ever did to me.
A good director makes a playground and allows you to play.
What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happens in New Orleans, goes home with you.
I don't go, 'It is now time to change Americans' perception of Muslims. It's going to be a long day.' I think you just try to be unique and try to be yourself, and if something good comes of that, then great.
When we started out, there was so much cash involved that it attracted an element you'd rather not do business with.
People are quick to be like, 'You're irrelevant. You're a flop; you're washed up.'
You know, I really am probably one of the sweetest, most sensitive people you'll ever meet.
A lot of people don't give their audiences credit. You can leave it a little mysterious. They can think about it.
I think it's more interesting to throw people into a story and let them catch up instead of explaining and feeling like you have to slow down for them. I think audiences, for the most part, they don't want to be ahead of you.
You either entertain an audience or you don't.
Humor has always been important to me. If there is a shield of faith that you can keep up against difficulties, humor is the Teflon coating.
