A great sense of morality was instilled in me through my upbringing in the Catholic faith - particularly because my father is a moral theologian. And morality is something I believe exists separate from faith, as an intrinsic human quality that one should aspire to understand and participate in.
I needed something deeper than the Catholic faith, and Buddha helps me control myself.
Beyond the purposes of self-defense or imminent danger, my Catholic faith teaches me and millions of other Americans that we do not get to decide who lives or who dies; only the good Lord does.
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 have to be a role model for my kids.
Unfortunately, when someone asks me for a favor, I can't say no. Because of my upbringing - my Catholic guilt - if I don't do it, it plagues me.
I came up from growing up with a lot of Catholic guilt, a lot of punk rock, hipster guilt in the later years where I think people have thrown a lot of things on me. Where I always felt like I'm not supposed to tell the horn section what to play or I don't want to come off egotistical.
One Roman Catholic School I will never forget. They sang a song to receive me. Part of the words were, 'Thank you, Lord, for giving us Terry.' It was beautiful; it really brought tears to my eyes.
When I left my Catholic school, I was around 10 or 11 years old, and it started to unravel for me there. Kids pick up on things if you're interested and inquisitive. I was seeing things that were not in line with what I'd been taught about Jesus. It didn't jive with me.
Again, conventional Catholicism does not much appeal to me.
I would say that, intellectually, Catholicism had no more impact on me than did social theory.
I never thought Cathy would get married in the comic strip. And I also thought I would never get married in real life. So both are shocks to me.
Nick is 11 and a half years younger than I am, so his mom is only, like, 11 or 12 years older than me. I didn't call her Mrs. Offerman because that would be weird because we're, like, the same age, so I think I went straight to Cathy, but there's a mom element, and his parents are so great.
In fact, I'll be taking a lot of Cathy Gale with me. I expect that was why I was chosen for the part.
We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.
I grew up in southeastern Oklahoma on a working cattle ranch, and it was always very romantic to me: The West, the cowboy, the Western way of life.
I don't think guys judge curvy women as much as women do. It shocks me how catty some women can be. In my whole life, I only had one guy break up with me over weight.
I was a very extrovert kid. It felt normal to me to act. I always went to regular schools. I've never been catty or a prima donna, so I never had problems. I always had my seat at the cafeteria when I came back from acting.
A few girls would be catty and say that my voice sounded really high, and I sang like a chipmunk, I got a few prank calls about that a few times. But it didn't really bother me that much. I think I was so focused on music that nothing could break me or get in my way.
Part of me relates to Perez Hilton because he's an outcast. I don't have a lot of friends who are actresses. They're catty, and they'll cut you down. I like that Perez is proud of who he is and doesn't care what anybody thinks.
When I was younger, I went through a phase when I didn't like my hair. Because the school I went to was primarily Caucasian, there wasn't anyone who had my hair texture. I remember one day I straightened my hair, and that was the first day that people gave me compliments on it.
