I don't feel I was ever a 'famous' child actor. I was just a working actor who happened to be a kid. I was never really in a hit show until I was a teenager with West Wing playing First Daughter Zoey Bartlet. In a way that was my saving grace - not being a star on a hit show. It kept me working and kept me grounded.

I heard so many stories from Gaomi's peasants that I had an irrepressible urge to write them down. Today Gaomi's peasants know that they have become famous around the world through my writings but I think they are a little puzzled by this.

I did grow up next door to Steve McQueen who was a very famous movie star at the time but as a kid it didn't impress me. We always had great fun with him. He would take us out on Sundays on his motorcycles riding around in the desert he was like a second father.

I worked at a hot dog place a bagel place the Jersey Store and the hottest fashion joint around. I was getting too famous to work there anymore. I was almost showing up as a joke. I made $2 000 on my show the previous night and I'm going to go shopping during my five-hour shift.

I've been around some very famous people but no one has the effect Maradona has people tremble in his presence.

I don't put weight on fame and having people around me just because I am famous makes me feel really bad about myself.

These days with 'American Idol' and all the other reality shows young people become famous overnight and that can be very difficult to handle the way photographers follow you around and study your every move.

I had to do this very aggressive big score in a very short time and knowing that in the beginning middle and end would be this very very famous theme but I still had to weave a score around it and make it work as a score was really challenging.

I'm not in the business of becoming famous. And that's the advice I give to younger aspiring actors. Work onstage and do the little roles. In the end it's not important to be seen. It's important to do. There's a lot of disappointment in this business but my family keeps me grounded.

I get very nervous around famous people and I get nervous around beautiful women.

Exploitation films were famous for taking an issue an exploiting it because they could move much faster than a studio could. If there was any hot topic they would run out and make a quick movie and make a buck on it by changing it around and using it in some way to give some relevance.

I didn't know what to expect from a famous movie star maybe that he'd be sort of stuck-up you know. But not Gary Cooper. He horsed around so much... that I had a hard time painting him.

But I didn't ask to have somebody nose around in my private life. I didn't even ask to be famous. All I asked was to be able to earn a living making people laugh.

I'm not one of those famous people flying round the world emoting over every catastrophe. I'm too feeble.

I can't advise any of the young ones because I don't know what their background was but I would suggest that anyone who wants to be famous more than anything - there's a real problem.

One thing about being famous is the people around you you pay all their bills so they very rarely disagree with you because they want you to pick up the check.

What I've learned is that you really don't need to be a celebrity or have money or have the paparazzi following you around to be famous.

I'm not comfortable being around too many people. I don't like being out in public too much. I don't like going to bars. I don't like doing celebrity stuff. So most of the characters I play are people who don't always feel comfortable beyond their small circle of friends.

I have no use for people who throw their weight around as celebrities or for those who fawn over you just because you are famous.

The Royal Family are not like you and me. They live in houses so big that you can walk round all day and never need to meet your spouse. The Queen and Prince Philip have never shared a bedroom in their lives. They don't even have breakfast together.

Anybody who is running a marathon or doing a walkathon doing a fundraiser for their school their company by far it's guaranteed the easiest and most fun way to quickly set up a fundraising campaign and send it around to your friends and family.

It is from the progeny of this parent cell that we all take our looks we still share genes around and the resemblance of the enzymes of grasses to those of whales is in fact a family resemblance.

When I'm on my own I can be negative. I need my friends and family around to help pick me up if I've had a bad qualifying session. I think insecurity plagues a lot of sportspeople.

My family truly believes they are better cooks than I am. They see me as Giada not as a celebrity chef. To them I'm just me - their granddaughter niece etc. and they're older and wiser. I like that because it keeps you grounded.