In high school I never went to the prom because I was too consumed with gymnastics. Also, with my hair in pigtails and looking about 10, I wasn't exactly date material.

Acting allows me the freedom to let go, to be in the moment, to be spontaneous. I no longer have the fear of losing, of failure.

I would climb on roofs and jump off using my parents' bed sheet, hoping it would open like a parachute. I was always getting hurt, breaking a leg, you know, bruising, cracking my head open.

Seeing the show is like a visit to the fountain of youth for parents and the children.

There's so much denial in gymnastics. It's a beautiful sport but the other part is numbing. You become machinelike. They'll refute this, but I've been around it. I know.

It's really hard to separate fantasy from reality.

Nowadays a gold medal is a $1 million contract. Our athletes are our heroes.

It's that athlete's obsessiveness - the need to prove yourself and work harder than anybody else. I think it's what helped me do well in the theater.

I will jump into most any role.

I grew up in a sport that didn't allow you to grow up. There was always the threat of younger competition. So you had to maintain the image of youth.

I have three dogs and a cockatoo.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.

Still I promise myself, "Next time I will do better" in the all-too-human conceit that I will always be offered a "next time.

Art is fire plus algebra.

We can break news really fast. When an earthquake happens, there are people Twittering about it.

Gaiety is often the reckless ripple over depths of despair.

What is necessary for the pubic realm is to shield it from the private interests which have intruded upon it in the most brutal and aggressive form.

The beginning of knowledge is to know thyself a sinner.

Every strong conviction ends by taking possession of us; it overcomes and absorbs us, and tears us ruthlessly from everything else. Has the Cross so seized upon your life?

I'm such a fan of anime and manga to this day, but I never really like got to know all the characters and everything, so I don't think I'd be able to pick one.

Purpose in the human being is a much more complex phenomenon than what used to be called will power.