I really think the disease aspect gets lost when you're talking about alcoholism and addiction; it's not like you're battling leukemia or a heart problem; it is that.
If you don't know what your family stands for and what your life situation is, you're in trouble.
Do not let where you come from define you, but never forget the values you learned from your close community.
To get to world-class, don't miss any opportunity to leverage the learning/insights/experiences of the people you meet. Because we really do become our conversations.
I fight like Bruce Lee. I train in his style of kung fu, wing chun. It's all about fighting with controlled power, so you learn to punch correctly.
Try to make at least one person happy every day. If you cannot do a kind deed, speak a kind word. If you cannot speak a kind word, think a kind thought. Count up, if you can, the treasure of happiness that you would dispense in a week, in a year, in a lifetime!
I think we get too hung up on categories. Obviously, the book market has to categorise things, and it makes it easier for a reader to go into a bookshop and choose, but as a writer, it helps to get rid of all of that and imagine you are a storyteller around a campfire.
I never lost my dreams in my 20s, and I know that sounds corny, but it's incredibly important to never let go of what you really want in your life.
You just feel better when you look nice.
It's real difficult to sing out in the elements at 2 in the morning in 35-degree weather while you're dancing in a sleeveless chiffon dress.
I try to make myself do things for other people when I'm feeling down. Like, you can call your local hospital and help out in the pediatric unit.
Failure has been my best friend as a writer. It tests you, to see if you have what it takes to see it through.
You need lofty goals. Then cement it with a great work ethic.
I was in a relationship with a girl I loved for three years. Where do you go after three years? Then you've got to start thinking about other things, and I'm too young to think about those things.
Anyone who's gotten their passport in America will tell you, when you get it, it still says what country you were born in. So I remember getting my American passport. I was like, 'Woo-hoo! I'm going to travel.' And I opened it up. It said, 'Born in Iran.' I'm like, 'Oh, come on, man!'
Consensus isn't just about agreement. It's about changing things around: You get a proposal, you work something out, people foresee problems, you do creative synthesis. At the end of it, you come up with something that everyone thinks is okay. Most people like it, and nobody hates it.
You go through this business and you meet people that you bond with, and you get to go make movies with them. It's wonderful. What I've always dreamt of, in my career, is to have a brotherhood of collaborators, and go in and out of working with them. I'm just starting to get that, and it's really lovely.
The constant fear of a performer is to become what is reflected back at you.
As someone who has long loved history and reads a lot of history, especially when you get a distance like 130 years, these people can seem almost mythical, and you need something tangible to make them real.
As an actor, you try to put a little bit of yourself in everything you do.
That's the great thing about university: you've got people around you who are taking a risk and trying things out themselves. It gives you the confidence to try and take it to the next step, which was drama school.
One of the things about writing fiction is that you create people that you feel, more or less, as though you know.
The pace is different on a film set. It's slightly slower, allowing for a little more wiggle room. Sometimes there is a bit more room to explore and work on the floor. On a TV set, you really have to be ultra-prepared and ready to deliver because time is so tight. Not that you don't have to be prepared for film.
As an actor, you're listening to the other person and always trying to be present and take everything they're giving you, but when they're not there, you have to produce that yourself.
When Lady Gaga says I am her inspiration, you reach kids between 12 and 18. Now I am like a brand - jeans, Coca-Cola.
Between the kids, the jobs and everything, no matter what color you are, cardio is probably not on the top of your list.
I've always felt like there are certain politicians that wear their religion on their sleeve in a way that you almost feel is disingenuous. I think that your faith has to be first personal. I struggle with those people that preach something and go back behind closed doors and live differently.
Keep yourself motivated. You've got to be motivated, you've got to wake up every day and understand what that day is about; you've got to have personal goals - short term goals, intermediate goals, and long term goals. Be flexible in getting to those goals, but if you do not have goals, you will not achieve them.
I'm moving on. I should have made that clear when I made the announcement. I guess I wasn't clear. If people think you're leaving a show after all these years, you might be retiring. So I understand where they're coming from, but I should have impressed the fact that I hope I'm just moving on right now.
If you are fragmented and uncertain, it is terrifying to find the boundaries of yourself melt.
Beauty is in the strangest places. A piece of garbage floating in the wind. And that beauty exists in America. It exists everywhere. You have to develop an eye for it and be able to see it.
My family weren't actors, and we didn't know any actors. It wasn't even something I was aware you could do as a job. I thought you had to be a Redgrave or a Barrymore before you were allowed to go to drama school.
'Die a Happy Man' was one of those that, when I wrote it and sent it to my label, their response was, 'This is a career record.' I was like, 'Why do you think that?' I think the stars aligned.
Those Catholics, they really nab you when you're young.
I'd love to do a comedy. I always told myself that I don't have funny bones, and then I was working with Dervla Kirwan in 'Uncle Vanya,' and she was like, 'Lara, you're really, really funny.' And I realised I am, and that's not even me blowing my own trumpet.
Like a lot of kids, you kind of think baseball's boring - that's the perception.
