I grew up in Honolulu. It's not the ballet cultural mecca by any stretch of the imagination. People are much more familiar with hula than they are with ballet.

The lowest budget U.S. films are ten times times better (than shooting in Tibet).

All teenagers have this desire to somehow run away.

Acting is actually private.

I would never offer advice without the person asking for it. I, in general, don't believe in giving advice, actually, as a human being I don't.

The difference between me and American-born actors is that I came here with the expectation of not being treated fairly.

My fairy-tale life ended the moment I wanted to apply for a passport.

All Asian parents are into your children having a respectable, decent stable job. Acting was unimaginable to my parents.

As an actress I find the most enjoyable part of acting is really just to please the director. I just want to please my director.

Since age 14, I know what actors fear, what they like; I know how to get things out of them and I listen to them better, since I've been there.

For the past few years, I was the more visible Asian performer, and I think it gave young girls a kind of role model showing it's possible to actually reach success doing movies.

An environment-based education movement--at all levels of education--will help students realize that school isn't supposed to be a polite form of incarceration, but a portal to the wider world.

See everything: overlook a great deal: correct a little.

There will always be those little minds who, out of vanity or intellectual display, will attempt to destroy faith in the very foundations of life.

I may not be the world's best glad-handing politician, but I've been elected mayor twice. I understand politics. And I definitely understand where the state line is.

I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.

How few women have any history after the age of thirty!

There aren't any looks or customs I wish would come back. Today almost anything goes. Culture constantly devours the past so there's not much that's missing.

The networks have a particular agenda, a particular model and structure. It doesn't have anything to do with content. This is not a dis on them - they are a business model, run by business people.

Mathematics is a collection of cheap tricks and dirty jokes.

Many marriages would be better if the husband and the wife clearly understood that they are on the same side.