My mom's Brazilian, so she and I definitely grew up with different perspectives. I was born in America, and she's from Brazil, so we have different ways of doing things. There's a bit of culture clash there.
I started acting when I was, like, three. My brother was really smart, and he wasn't being challenged enough, so my mom put him in the theater class. And I obviously followed him.
My mom is two people to me. She's my mom number one, and then she's this lady most comedians know as being a legendary owner of a nightclub that's responsible for starting a lot of heavy careers.
I grew up in the '80s, and there was no bigger group than New Edition in R&B. I broke my piggy bank so me and my mom could go to a New Edition concert together.
I have to admit I was dismayed when I found out 'type A' refers to a category of risk for heart disease - I thought it was just a nickname my mom gave me!
Every single second of every single day... I don't know if I feel like a bad mom, but at the end of the day I'm always plagued with, 'Did I do enough? Should I go in a different direction?'
My mom used to ask me when I was gonna write a happy song. I still tell her that it's when I start to write really happy-sounding songs that everyone needs to start worrying.
I know that on my own sites, a picture of me with my mom or me with my dog does well, but when I put up a picture of myself shirtless, it does get a little crazy.
I did karate for about three years. When I was going into Miss Texas, my mom said, 'Let's not do karate this year. Let's not have any knocked-out teeth on the stage.'
I'm frugal. I've always been this way. When I was young, my mom would give me my allowance, and I'd peel off a little each week and have some to spare.
That's actually how my parents met. They were pen pals. My mom was in the Philippines and my father was in the States, and they wrote to each other. He went out to meet her, and they wed not too long after.
I have a very broad demographic, from the 8-year-old who knows every word to 'Ice Ice Baby' and the college kid who grew up on 'Ninja Rap' to the soccer mom and grandparent.
When I first got into the entertainment industry, I would always watch Rihanna and all those people, so I was like, 'Ooh, I have to be this.' So my mom was like, 'Just be yourself.'
I wanted to be a child actor so bad that every day I'd beg my parents if I could audition, but my mom said, 'Not until you can drive yourself to auditions.'
I wanted to escape so badly. But of course I knew I couldn't just give up and leave school. It was only when I heard my mom's voice that I came out of my hiding place.
I want to focus on the importance of supporting marriage. I always speak about the need to respect everyone's human dignity - regardless of their sexual orientation. I think strengthening marriage is something that benefits everyone.
The other two things are... well, I had a huge appetite for old black and white movies on BBC 2. At the weekends they used to run matinees, and the more romantic the better.
I'm as old as the moon and the stars, and as young as the trees and the lakes. My style comes from looking at what came before me, and from visiting a lot of places.
I'm used to getting up at 7, getting breakfast, getting the kids off to school, and doing the mommy thing and the wife thing and the daughter thing.
And when I met Cecil Taylor it was a complete transformation of musical identities. All the tenets that I had grown up with were thrown out the window.
The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.
