I don't know what its like for most actors, but really clearly for myself acting has always been the fulfilment of personal fantasies. It isn't just art, its about being a person I've always wanted to be, or being in a situation, or being a hero.
Being famous gets me good concert tickets, good tables in restaurants, good seats at sporting events and that's really about it.
The rare pleasure of being seen for what one is, compensates for the misery of being it.
I call it like I see it. I don't hold back when it comes to being candid on the hot issues.
I have no ego investment in being on the air. I don't knock others for whom that kind of attention is like oxygen, but I don't miss anything about it.
I think I've been lucky, being my frequent appearances on Court TV have brought to me another level than just the actor guy.
I'd love to do some bedtime stories for kids or that kind of thing. But with the demands of the shooting schedule and balancing the demands of being a single mother, it's a wonder you can squeeze in anything.
I was reading through endless junk scripts that were being sent my way. Typically the roles were to play his wife or his girlfriend - leading roles for women were few and far between.
It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate.
Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet.
Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit.
Under adversity, under oppression, the words begin to fail, the easy words begin to fail. In order to convey things accurately, the human being is almost forced to find the most precise words possible, which is a precondition for literature.
When we are touched by something it's as if we're being brushed by an angel's wings.
Fugitive slaves were rare then, and as a fugitive slave lecturer, I had the advantage of being the first one out.
We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.