I can accept failure everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.

While I was trying to save money to go to the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Australia I ended up getting all of this experience which meant that by the time I had enough money in the bank to go to school I didn't really need to go to school anymore.

When I'm writing I'm trying to immerse myself in the chaos of an emotional experience rather than separate myself from it and look back at it from a distance with clarity and tell it as a story. Because that's how life is lived you know?

The act of writing... is the act of trying to understand why my opinion is what it is. And ultimately I think that's the same experience the reader has when they pick up one of my books.

When you do find humor in trying times one of the first and most important changes you experience is that you see your perplexing problems in a new way - you suddenly have a new perspective on them.

My worst hair experience was when I was trying to relax my hair and my grandmother did it. It went all straight and I looked like a black Bee Gee.

Making an album should be an honest experience. It shouldn't be about trying to gauge where popular music is today it should be about artistic expression and putting down what you want to put down.

I can't control what people think. I'm not trying to manipulate people's thoughts or sentiments. I write all the time. You have to experience life make observations and ask questions. It's machine-like how things are run now in hip-hop and my ambitions are different.

One nice thing about being a woman in Hollywood is that the women tend to be very close-knit. All of us writers and directors know each other and cling to each other for safety and support and it's really a completely different vibe than the men experience out here where they're all trying to murder each other.

I had the experience last year of directing my first feature while I had a 1-year-old son and while I was also pregnant so I am now well aware of the difficulties women who are rearing children face when they're also trying to make headway in mainstream of film.

I'm not trying to be romantic. I think you can tell when people are trying to be sexy onstage. When I was doing 'All the Way ' I was really thinking about my wife. People don't know my personal experience but they can tell it's an honest interpretation.

Well I think the main message is there is more to your story. There is more than what happens between the crib and the grave and that is what I am really trying to speak to this idea that all of life is this life and that there is nothing more than what we see and experience right here on this earth.

At times I experience hardship in trying to find the proper point of balance between traditional things and my own personality.

I am a woman in process. I'm just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict every experience and learn from it. Life is never dull.

Jackie Robinson as an athlete and as someone who was trying to make a stand for equality he was exemplary.

We're not trying to reinvent the wheel for any environmental organization to claim sole responsibility for any kind of victory is insane because everybody attacks these problems as a group.

I went to drama school for four years at Carnegie Mellon conservatory training before television comedy. I was doing Shakespeare and Chekov plays. It's about delivering on the promise of a $100 000 education and taking the shackles off and trying the hand at my craft. I'm thrilled with what I've seen so far.

Today there are people trying to take away rights that our mothers grandmothers and great-grandmothers fought for: our right to vote our right to choose affordable quality education equal pay access to health care. We the people can't let that happen.

I worry whether it's not really the best way to live one's life - trying to fulfill the dreams you had as a child. Maybe it's quite a backwards approach.

I was so lucky to have parents who supported me 100% with whatever I was doing both financially and emotionally. Having that they made my life so much easier. Instead of becoming a bartender and trying to survive while trying to pursue your dreams I didn't have to worry about that aspect. I could just pursue my dreams.

Just really really believe in what you're trying to do. Don't let people alter that. Let people advise you and lead you down paths to make smart business decisions. But trust your instinct and trust that overwhelming drive that made you put all your dreams and everything on the line.

College baseball I love it. I love to work with the younger kids who are trying to live out their dreams if in fact that's what they plan on doing after college to take the next step.

I love to work with the younger kids who are trying to live out their dreams if in fact that's what they plan on doing after college to take the next step. A very select few have that opportunity so when you do have the opportunity you know those guys take advantage of it.

It's like one of those dreams you have when someone is chasing you. You're running as fast as you can and someone's trotting behind you just out of range trying to grab onto you.