I've starred in many melodramas, but the reason 'Something in the Rain' is so special to me is that I feel like I'm living in reality.
It is funny that people always assume you have a bigger part in a movie than you actually do. I remember a lot of people thought 'Adventureland' starred me and Kristen Wiig. But we were like, 'No, we're only in the movie for like ten minutes!'
When I first started on television, people, and even my own manager at the time, would tell me I had to make all of these changes. But you have to stand up and say, 'There's nothing wrong with me or my shape or who I am; you're the one with the problem!' And when you can really believe that, all of a sudden other people start believing, too.
When I was pregnant, a few of my friends told me that their babies slept in bed with them. I remember thinking how crazy that was. Then I started reading up on it and decided it was something I actually wanted to try.
And I tell ya, when I sit in that sound booth and started reading the script and starting to get into the character, man, it's an easy jump for me, because I understand what it's all about.
I like to tell kids that I started thinking about stories when I first started reading stuff like Dr. Seuss and 'Go, Dog. Go!,' thinking, 'Oh yeah, that's funny. I'd like to do that.' And then writing throughout school, but at the same time I was studying pre-med stuff, because my mom told me I should be a doctor.
When I was named captain under Mark Sampson, there were a lot of questions about whether I was ready for it. I wasn't a certain starter. There were more experienced players than me; I was only 25. I was trying to nail down a centre-half spot, and it was a difficult situation.
I used to think that my songs were the best things that I would leave behind me. And I definitely think my kids are now. For starters, they're writing better songs than I was at their age.
There are better starters than me but I'm a strong finisher.
I've done more than 100 films, which is a sizeable chunk of life in cinema, so if something can startle me, then I think we can say we're looking at something fairly new.
She jerked away from me like a startled fawn might, if I had a startled fawn and it jerked away from me.
I'm still startled when people ask me for writing advice.
The separate water foundations, park benches, bathrooms and restaurants of the Jim Crow South startled me. These experiences motivated my lifelong study of the status of African Americans and the sources of improvement in that status.
I get startled really easily, so I hate horror films. I have to close my eyes when I think something is going to make me jump, because I just scream.
It had been startling and disappointing to me to find out that story books had been written by people, that books were not natural wonders, coming of themselves like grass.
One of the most startling events in my life was when my older son was about 16, and he blamed me for all the troubles of the world. So I, I felt like telling him, 'Oh no, I was just like you when I was your age; I wanted to change the world, too.'
I'm not anxious to starve myself. For me, it's not at all sexy to be ultra-thin.
Since I was a kid - youngest of five kids - I've always been starved for attention, like 'Look at me! Look at me! Look what I can do!'
All I know for certain is that reading is of the most intense importance to me; if I were not able to read, to revisit old favorites and experiment with names new to me, I would be starved - probably too starved to go on writing myself.
It took so long to make it in America. The year I arrived was a bad year for women singers, the record company told me. So I starved. I lived in a hotel so dreadful I can't even talk about it.
