After high school, I was going to move out to L.A. and try to pursue my dreams of acting. My parents said, 'That's fine. We support you, but you have to go to school,' which was fine because I'm a studious person anyway; I enjoy it.
Anyone with a show on T.V. will tell you it's backbreaking work. And if you have a big personality, which I have, and you're a perfectionist, there's going to be head-butting.
I think polo players are at their best in their 30s. You've got the talent and the experience. You play with your head - you learn to lose and how to win.
People work so hard, and I want to keep that energy up, and you can spread that if you're the actor. But I'm also not able to turn it on and off like a faucet. A lot of what I'm called upon to play is violent or angry. When I'm messing around with the crew and making jokes, I remember, 'Oh, this is the guy I normally am.'
Ryan is an amazing person. When I was his age, I wasn't thinking about giving someone a kidney. How do you ever repay someone for something like that? You can't. It's not like borrowing $20 from someone and telling them you're going to give it back. It's something that you can never repay someone for.
The worst food you'll ever eat will probably be prepared by a 'cook' who calls himself a 'chef.' Mark my words.
Nobody says you have to be shackled to tradition.
I think once you enter the dating world and you realise it's nothing like those Disney movies you watched when you were a little girl, you just become more guarded.
I probably learned, being in 'Taxi Driver' before I made my first film, I would come to the set every day just to watch how that film came about. It's like a graduate course: it's terrific. You talk to the cinematographer during the breaks. You ask the electrician why they are doing this.
My entire life had been this long, pressured conversation about the family I represented. 'When you walk out the door, you represent us. You have to dress well and make sure your hair is combed.'
Drawings don't have a point. Cartoons, you want to have an opinion; you want them to express a viewpoint.
I've done a lot of dramas, and I've done a lot of serious stuff - some really heavy stuff... which I loved, but I wanted to do something light and airy. I think the challenge for an actor is always to see which parts of you you can explore and go have fun with.
To the degree you eat less of the bad carbs and fats and enough of the good carbs and fats, you're likely to look better, feel better, lose weight and gain health.
You can tell when somebody's authentic about what they're saying.
One of my first questions when I interview prospective employees is, 'Do you know how big a sheet of plywood is?' Most people don't, and say they are different sizes, but it's 4' x 8'. Anyway, working with your hands is a very American thing that we kinda lost here, but it's an important skill to have.
Someone once said that to make a regular person laugh, you need to dress a guy up like an old lady and push him down the stairs. To make a comedy writer laugh, you have to push a real old lady down the stairs. I don't know who that's attributed to. I think it's Aristophanes. Or Catherine the Great.
My mom. Growing up with her, she always taught us to say whatever. Like, 'You think something, say it. Don't bite your tongue for people.' I think there's a fine line with that, but at the same time, I'm a firm believer in speaking your mind.
You must all follow the lead of the bishop, as Jesus Christ followed that of the Father; follow the presbytery as you would the Apostles; reverence the deacons as you would God's commandment.
When I receive letters from girls that say, 'You give me confidence,' I think, 'Wow, this is amazing.' That's my goal: to let people know it's truly what's on the inside that counts.
It's so fun to do theater, because as opposed to television, you just keep doing it again and again and again - every night. Sometimes it lands beautifully, and sometimes it lands just beside of it. It's like throwing a horseshoe. It's great fun.
I don't know if there is anyone who wouldn't want to play some kind of superhero. I don't know if the world is getting sick of superhero movies or not, but I think you will endlessly have actors who are intrigued by the idea of playing a superhero.
You just keep pushing yourself harder and harder to achieve more and more - I don't think it's ever quite as glamorous as it appears on the outside.
I've always wanted to see what Egypt was like when they were building the pyramids or Rome at the height of the empire or Greece - more specifically, Crete before it was destroyed. Why? Because I'm curious how we all hung out on a day to day basis, what was the chit chat, etc. Reading things in a book never gives you the feel.
In Nigeria, if you say you're a singer, people say, 'So what? Everyone sings.' In Germany, my voice stood out more.
Being a mom makes you far more compassionate. You have more empathy for people, more love. I was always taught to say thank you, and I'm very grateful. And my kids have that quality, too.
If you're being attacked by something on the outside, which I feel a lot being in show business, you just have to dial it back and breathe and know that you are protected.
You can't know what the future holds, though you might conjecture on it, and if you're psychic, you might venture a guess.
When you're onstage and you know you're bombing, that's very, very scary. Because you know you gotta keep going - you're bombing, but you can't stop.
Sometimes your mind lets you do things with your money that make no sense.
I am certainly not perfect. I don't think you should try to be perfect for anyone. When you come to terms with that, then you're OK.
When you look back on music history, it falls into these neat periods, but of course, the period you yourself are living through seems totally scattered and chaotic.
It's not easy to sit down and open yourself up and say, 'This is how much I love you,' you know? It's scary to do that.
I've had people call me from bands that are very popular, and they're like, 'What do we do? We want to do what you do.' It's almost impossible to do what I do, because you would have to start in 1980. You can't just do it.
A play, after all, is a mystery. There's no narration. And as soon as there's no narration, it's open to interpretation. It must be interpreted. You don't have a choice... Each play can become many things.
I grew up thinking you're either a winner in the world, or you're not. I presumed I was not. I had no reason to think I would be, and my inclination is towards self-deprecation. I wish I'd known no one was judging my every move, but I'm still like this!
Doing film and television demands a kind of simplicity. If you think something differently, the camera will pick it up.
