I don't have any training as an actor, but I guess I'm an intense pretender. When you read something over and over, it gets into you a little bit. You can't help but begin to feel it, even if you're a healthy person as I think I am.
The imagination is our final advantage as a species, a place to safely (and happily) explore experiences that are far from safe and far from happy. “Dracula” and “The Fly” may delight and appall in equal measure, but they also gently prepare ...
I grew up in a place where books were very, very scarce, and I loved to read. I used to read the writing on my breakfast Ovaltine over and over again because it was in front of me, and I couldn't help but read anything that was in front of me.
I descend from both Philadelphia Quakers and Carolina colonists whose families were separated by the Revolutionary War. That helped give me insight into the agony of Patriots who, until the British government denied their claims, had always, like Ben...
Queens is so often treated as a stepchild and labeled as an outer borough. At the very least, if I could help bring more attention to what we need, and what the federal government needs to do to improve the quality of life of people right here in Que...
It has taken me a long time to work out the function of ex-boyfriends, at least for me: how they can help you work out what you want from life and from a partner by showing you what you don't. If a man is your ex, it's better all round if he was not ...
The biggest way I stay motivated is to run with a group of friends. Sometimes it's hard to get going by yourself, but if you have a plan and a meeting time, you know this run will happen for sure. It's a way to have fun - while also getting in a work...
There's only a couple times when fame is ever helpful. Sometimes you can get into a restaurant where the kitchen is just closing. Sometimes you can avoid a traffic violation. But the only time it really matters is in the emergency room with your kids...
David Bruce, I think, is one of the outstanding persons for whom I've ever worked. He had a sense of balance. He was interested in everything that went on in the Embassy. He delegated authority, but at the same time when you needed the Ambassador's h...
I took some voice lessons here and there as a teenager but nothing too serious. I started taking it more seriously when I was in Miss Saigon. I needed to improve my technique in order to survive doing that show as many time a week as I was doing it. ...
I think taking vacations and turning off the phone and only doing emails or social media for a specific short amount of time helps with work/life balance. If I'm checking it all day I start to feel cuckoo-bird. So I just do it once or twice a day ins...
When I first found out I had HIV, I had to find somebody who was living with it, who could help me understand my journey and what I was going to have to deal with day-to-day. I found out that a person named Elizabeth Frazier was living with AIDS at t...
It doesn't matter if you're the smartest person in the room: If you're not someone who people want to be around, you won't get far. Likewise for helping those in line behind you. I take seriously my role as a mentor to young female filmmakers - I mak...
You know what works in venture capital? A group of incredibly smart, connected people who have the financial wherewithal and risk appetite to make multi-million dollar bets on unproven ideas and inexperienced founders. People who can make decisions q...
'Star Trek' is a 'Wagon Train' concept - built around characters who travel to worlds 'similar' to our own, and meet the action-adventure-drama which become our stories. Their transportation is the cruiser 'S.S. Yorktown,' performing a well-defined a...
Col. Muska: [chasing Sheeta through the labyrinth] Sheeta, listen to me. Be reasonable! There's no way you can escape. Sheeta: [pounding on a door] Please! Open! Please! Col. Muska: No one can hear you. Only *I* can help you.
[about joining the DPS] Dalton: It'll help you get Chris! Knox: Yeah? How? Dalton: Women swoon! [Dalton rushes off to class] Knox: But why do they swoon? [runs after Dalton] Knox: Charlie, tell me why they swoon!
CBS Page: [after they're all waiting anxiously for a phone call after a show] Should I turn the phones back on? Jimmy: Yes, that would be helpful, thank you. Fred Friendly: Turn the phones back on!
John Coffey: [after being locked inside his prison cell, he looks up at Paul] I couldn't help it, Boss. I tried to take it back... but it was too late. [Paul glances at John Coffey for a second and walks away]
[Chunk is running toward the road in the dead of night to find help] Chunk: I'm not all alone in the dark. I like the dark. I love the dark. [He ducks and crawls under a tree branch] Chunk: But I hate nature! I HATE nature!
Miss Maudie Atkinson: Jem. Jem: Yes, ma'am? Miss Maudie Atkinson: I don't know if it will help saying this to you... some men in this world are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us... your father is one of them. Jem: Oh, well.
