Everything I've done in my career is a result of growing up in rural Oklahoma, because if I hadn't had the training from Mama and Daddy to work hard, to do what I'm told, to take directions, to mind and to do a good job at anything I set out to do, t...
I am a profound pessimist both about life and about human relations and about politics and ecology. Humans are inadequate and stupid creatures who sooner or later make a mess, and those who are trying to do good do a lot more damage than those who ar...
Recently a study proved that working from a larger, less cluttered computer screen increases concentration. I could have told them that. And yes, I write first drafts with a mechanical pencil and a yellow legal pad. There's good reason for this primi...
I adore gardening and plan to take it up properly when I have a bit more time on my hands. Until then, I love pottering in garden centres. I'm totally low maintenance. I don't ask for fancy plants, just basic, long-lasting shrubs that look nice. But ...
I want someone who will love me for the person I am and not because of my status. It has to be someone who understands the pressure of playing for India. It will be very difficult to be with a person who has her own career because someone has to make...
Sleep makes people calmer, more alert, less fearful - just plain happier, or so I see around me and in me. I am sure that if this great nation were to concentrate on getting more sleep, we would be a happier, more confident people, and that by itself...
My greatest fear is feeling like a professional novelist. Somebody who creates characters, who sits down and has pieces of paper taped to the wall - what's going to happen in this scene, or this act. What I like is for it to be a much more scary, slo...
From my perspective, I absolutely believe in a greater spiritual power, far greater than I am, from which I have derived strength in moments of sadness or fear. That's what I believe, and it was very, very strong in the forest.
I am somebody who focuses on a dialogue between generations - that's the drive of my work. I believe the young generation take the power; they'll take over at one point, but the older generation, they'll push it away only because of the fear. I'm the...
I think there's a lot projected on beautiful women, period. At least, maybe this is just my fear, but I do sometimes feel dismissed before I've even been allowed to participate. I have moments of feeling really wounded. But I am pretty optimistic, an...
When I started my blog, it was really this one goal - I said, 'I am not going to be famous to the world, but I could be famous to people on the Internet.' And I set a goal. I said, 'I'm going to win an award,' because I had never won an award in my e...
I grew up with a lot of people who are famous now. I was friends with Hilary and Haley Duff. They are such lovely girls. I have watched their careers blossom, which I am really happy for. I grew up with Ashley Tisdale; we used to both live in Valenci...
A famous actor told me once - I don't want to name names, I hate that sort of thing - but I was at his house and he said, 'Are you on Twitter?' I said, 'Yes, I am.' And he said, 'There'll be one day when you'll have, like, five friends. And in the sa...
I have implicit faith in Sun Yat-sen, not because I am his blind follower, but because he really arouses the deepest respect in everybody. I do not know of another person in China who has such a broad and international outlook, whose ideas are so con...
Martha Graham, along with George Balanchine, is one of the two commanding figures in 20th-century American dance. For those much younger than I am, her genius as a performer will have to be taken on faith - and on the always-suspect evidence of film....
Being that I was raised in the Catholic faith, I am very careful about what I choose. I've turned down a lot of projects that... could have helped me a lot financially, and I've quit shows because of where they were going and because I feel like I ha...
I don't think I can do anything. I mean, I felt I had been given a bit of a gift and a key to a kind of a future. But I've always felt there is more that I can learn and that there are many people who are as good as, or better at, what I do than I am...
I really do feel like Los Angeles is my home now and, as cliche as this sounds, I felt like I found myself here and I really know who I am now. There was a long period like I was drifting or floating through life, and now I feel like I have a definit...
I know some people say I can be funny. But there is always a deeper meaning to what I say. I am a socialist at heart and have the interests of the poor in mind. When people see how I manage to work my way out of tough situations, it gives them hope i...
I am not particularly religious. But I think we do face the question of where God is, why we are created and where does life go, why we exist. That sort of thing. And it is very hard to talk about it these days, because it cannot be proven. It is har...
My wife and I love children. We have five of our own. I would ask that anyone who looks up to me would instead look up to God. I am nothing without Him. Everything I do in life and in baseball is to glorify Him.
