I'm trying to show I'm a trained actress - I can transform myself into different characters. I'm not just an ingenue.
The idea is to make the script out of a political analysis and then to convey that - sometimes in poetry, sometimes science, sometimes all it takes is a film. The film itself is less and less spectacular because I think very strongly now the more spectacular you are, the more you are absorbed by the things you are trying to destroy.
All you're trying to do in an improvisation is get as much material as possible for the editing room.
That's definitely something I've experienced my whole life - people thinking one thing and then discovering that I'm not, hopefully. So I relate to having to fight that and claim my own identity, when people are trying to throw different ones at me.
The process of composition, messing around with paragraphs and trying to make really good prose, is hardwired into my personality.
As long as you do the best work that you can and not make it bland... because you're going down a lane that is trying to make everybody happy. You have to take an angle on these things.
Travis Alexander was a good guy. Was he a saint? No. But he was somebody who was really, really invested in helping other people and making this world a better place. Everything he did, even the car he drove, was a sign of him trying to be a force for good in this world.
I don't think politics has anything to do with left, right, or center. It has to do with trying to do right by people.
I suppose the more established one gets, you have what's called a reputation, and so you want to protect that and preserve that. And I think the bravery really comes in one's mid career where you then are constantly trying to move beyond that and move past that, because those so-called successors can become shackles.
We're trying to be that franchise that year-in and year-out is competing for a championship.
I don't copy recipes without trying them out. I don't reprint without trying them again.
There's so much fear involved in trying to do something you don't know how to do that drugs and alcohol can become a big part of your life if you have an addictive personality or are very unsure, which most songwriters are.
Movies are weird; it's like trying to make a painting with one hundred people. It's a weird world, but every job is weird; it's always a little bit hard, crazy and fun, a nice combination.
If someone is trying to skip the struggle - which is the creative job - our machines today, the technology that we have, can help the person, but it is only momentary. On the other hand, if you are creative, you have the skill, and you are hardworking, technology can only make you superior.
You get dinged for wanting to do a comedy, then wanting to do a big-budget action film, and then wanting to do an indie. But you can't let other people trying to label you get in the way of trying to do something artistically.
I can't remember a time when I wasn't trying to get something down on paper.
On 'Justified', we're driving all around Southern California trying to find a location that we can call Kentucky.
I think Uber is a good car service, but Lyft is going after a much bigger problem in trying to make life without a car possible and reinvent the way people get around cities.
When you read something, it's a movie in your mind and such a personal experience. What we're trying to do is to bring a consensus version of that to life and make as many people happy as we can.
If you think about the people trying to hurt you, rather than just trying to hurt them back, you can understand it has nothing to do with you.
Risks are a measure of people. People who don't take them are trying to preserve what they have. Some risks have a future, and some people call them wrong. But being right may be like walking backwards, proving where you've been.
And the issues I think are important in Louisiana right now happen to be health care and education. And those are two areas that the federal government can play a very important role. And I think I can be effective in trying to help our state from the Washington scene.
My primary job is to score runs and make KKR win, and that's what I am trying to do. Rest, I don't think too much. That's how I have always played my game.
I wasn't academically successful. And maybe I've spent a lot of my career trying to make up for that.
I write the paragraph, then I'm crossing out, changing words, trying to improve it. When it seems more or less OK, then I type it up because sometimes it's almost illegible, and if I wait, I might not be able to read it the next day.
I'm trying to write songs to appeal to everybody.
The idea of taking off my shoes and trying on all these clothes is so exhausting, I just leave.
It is no use trying to sum people up. One must follow hints, not exactly what is said, nor yet entirely what is done.
We are losing the democracy that we're trying to sell in the Mideast and everywhere else right here in our own nation.
I like to challenge myself not to be negative, because it's easy to take comedy to a negative place and criticize the outside world. Trying to praise something through comedy or be appreciative and making jokes about it is more challenging than cutting things down.
Yes, we have got to quit worrying about fighting each other and trying to figure out a way to work together.
At almost forty years old, I assumed my career on camera was over. And I was certainly given that message by all the TV managers and news directors who passed on me when I was trying to get a job back in the business.
I don't like to use the word 'legacy' because it sounds a bit like I'm full of myself, but I am trying to see how far I can take myself, how far I can push being the best in the world.
You can't control how you are perceived, and you are a fool if you waste any energy trying to do so. Vanity will get you nowhere.
Once you start classifying and trying to identify your own comedy style, you've ceased to be funny.
You don't just wake up one day and decide who you are. I hope that people see that it's okay not to have labels nor label anyone else. Step back. We're all just trying to figure it out.
