I have a wonderful shelter, which is my family. I have a wonderful relationship with my brother and sister; this makes me feel that I know always where I belong.
I knew nothing about my mum's family. Her parents were dead by the time she was 14. She was brought up by two aunts, and she only ever met one uncle.
My family has spent 400 years farming on the banks of the Rio Grande. We know the value of hard work, love of the community, love for water and land.
I do know what my family has done for me, but they do need to give me some space to let me be myself. There would be some things I would handle differently.
I mean, I would never want to do anything to hurt my family, but then again I would never want to do anything to hurt myself. And I think they go hand in hand.
When you're with your family you're with them and when you're working you're doing that. I definitely try to separate the time when I'm working and when I have my personal time.
I think I'm most proud of my family right now. I'm more into that then I've ever been. It also gives a new area to draw from in creativity with my songs.
For me, family is life. The decision to start one wasn't complex at all. My career has been wonderful, but it's not my life. I don't feel pressure to get back to work.
I love where I'm from. I don't live there because of the circumstances, but all my family is there. It's what's inside, it's not what's outside that determines the culture and the feeling.
I had 13 weeks off and I would pack up the family and drive to some mountain retreat where we could be together and fish all day. I loved it. I needed it.
It would be ridiculous for me to say I am unlucky, but, like any other family and any other girl, I've had my ups and downs.
I came from an intellectual family. Most were doctors, preachers, teachers, businessmen. My grandfather was a small businessman. His father was an abolitionist doctor, and his father was an immigrant from Germany.
I come from a family who prided themselves, both sides, on memory. And I was told growing up, constantly, that I was born with a really good memory.
I've been a fashion model for 15 years and designing is just an extension of my career. I still plan on modeling lingerie, but at the same time this is a business transition that I plan to have around for a long time.
In 'Tree of Life,' the cinematography records a small story, a celebration of the courage of everyday life. But it does it so up close and so effortlessly that it has the effect of elevating the intimacy of the story to a grand scale.
I was a kid watching music videos, which were so cool and made me want to learn how to dance. I wish I could've gone to dance classes and learn, like, hip-hop dancing.
I don't really go out that much, if I'm honest. I'm quite a recluse. If I had my way, I'd probably be at home most of the time with a book and a cup of tea or glass of wine.
All of a sudden to get all of this attention, and to be away from home and working all the time was hard. I was on planes all the time. I didn't see my friends. I cried a lot. It was quite terrifying.
You know, the sad thing of post-9/11, which was of course horrific, was that the city in which I felt completely at home for two decades, suddenly people like us - brown people - were looked at as the 'Others.'
Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meanderings, but leads none of us by the same route.
In my generation, history was taught in terms of grand figures, men on whom the destiny of the nation hinged, quintessential heroes.
