I'm a perfectionist about being on time.

The music I love listening to is more of the Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Dido, Jewel Kilcher, Norah Jones, Joss Stone, a bit more of that organic live-instrumentation feel.

Australia is an island surrounded by water. My fondest memories growing up were trips to the beach, walking around the harbour and playing in the beautiful parks.

In Australia, there is a very famous show called 'Home and Away.' I was cast on that at 15. The day I started filming, my life changed.

If I ever had to be on an amusement park ride, I probably wouldn't get on one; I'm not a very adventurous person!

I grew up listening to most of my parents' music, like The Beatles and ABBA and all that stuff.

Singing is and always will be a part of my life.

Music I can discover a part of myself that I haven't been able to for a long time, and acting is the opposite. I'm in love with both of them and I would never choose one over the other.

I always wanted to perform. I remember being 5 years old and telling my parents to sit down as I was going to put on a play for them.

I promise to pay you before you die - but you have to promise not to die.

I want people to say, 'She is really sweet and kind.' Anyone can work hard enough and be 'pretty.' Not many people are nice nowadays.

Intellectual freedom is the only guarantee of a scientific - democratic approach to politics, economic development, and culture.

It's a metaphor for what we're being told: "Just stay in the box, kid, don't muddy the water." Parents say it to their kids. Teachers say it. Schools do. And so people become immune to the sameness.

I always feel that as the author, once I know what a character is ashamed of, then I can go about making her truthful on the page.

I'd cry, if only I had the time to do it.

It's inexplicable why somebody can lose a leg and it doesn't effect them at all emotionally; and another person can lose a foot and be destroyed for the rest of their lives.

I would not read the proof of one of my books for any fair & reasonable sum whatever, if I could get out of it. The proof-reading on the P & Pauper cost me the last rags of my religion.

Mississippi State has two pretty looking quarterbacks.

It's the greatest of Southern honors . . . to have one's name incorporated into a family tree. It's an honor not lightly given.