I have learned to pare down what I do and still be effective and strong in a role.

I wanted to do something far from my intellectual and physical home, so I went to live in Beijing for eight months and took Mandarin Chinese.

We all struggle with our failure to communicate and our failure to reach beyond fear to love people.

I try to become more humble and more myself with every year. There was a while when I got famous where I was so confused and my head was spinning.

I assume that if people get to know me, they'll like me. If they don't, it's not my problem.

My major in college was Chinese Studies. It was very intentional.

I hope that doing truthful portrayals of people in a variety of circumstances gives people a kind of subterranean link to those characters.

I could have seen myself going into academia, but I don't love it; I just like it.

I want my life to effect the balance to the positive.

The Oscars have become such a big deal these days that it's just used as adjective.

When I was 5, my mother threw a party, and a friend and I wrote and performed a play called The Dutch Doll.

What I should do and what I want to do are two opposing forces. I have no idea which way I am going to end up.

Sunset is still my favorite color, and rainbow is second.

I said Ted Cruz has been lying because if you say something that isn't true, and you say it over and over again, and you know that it's not true, there's no other word for it.

A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.

Disarmed citizens encourage crime and violence. Armed citizens encourage criminals to find a safer line of work.

A poor teacher complains, an average teacher explains, a good teacher teaches, a great teacher inspires.

A garden is a love song, a duet between a human being and Mother Nature.

I'm interested in power.

Never sell your soul.

I am desperate for attention. But everyone else is too. Everyone has fantasies of fame and greatness. Life for most people is a process of shedding those fantasies.