Physical hunger and physical poverty is something I could only imagine. I've been poor when I was in China... As kids we never had to starve, but just didn't have enough meat, enough rice.

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.

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.

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.

Anytime, someone gives you advice, rethink if it will lead to personal progress.

Fate! This four-letter little word gave the biggest harm to mankind! We must totally get rid of this degrading concept of primitiveness!

Pride is the problem. Everyone wants to be right so badly they overlook the "rights" of others.

Football is not a game but a religion, a metaphysical island of fundamental truth in a highly verbalized, disguised society, a throwback of 30,000 generations of anthropological time.

Once a week, I like to slip into a deep existential depression where I lose all my sense of oneness and self-worth.

We need balanced programs, balanced priorities on the fiscal side

I have seen one shrike occupy himself for hours in sticking up on thorns, a number of small fishes that the fishermen had thrown on the shore. The fishes dried up and decayed.

Listen twice as much as you speak.

No, if it was up to me every record would be brand new studio material but Atlantic records asked me to put out a full live record because my tour really did do well last year.

I escaped a North Korean prison camp