Give yourself an even greater challenge than the one you are trying to master and you will develop the powers necessary to overcome the original difficulty.

But very often in politics we have the experience called up from my father when someone was trying to help him in the campaign: I can take care of my enemies, may the Good Lord save me from my friends.

We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people wouldn't obey the rules.

I don't see myself as competing with other actresses. I mean, I went through a time when I was in New York, and I was going to lots of auditions and trying to get parts, but even then, you're not really competing with the other actresses. There is a competition going on, but it's not like something you can win in that way.

We all perform our lives in a way. And the actor is a perfect metaphor to get at that theme of 'how do we find our authentic selves?' And that we all - whether we're actors or not - perform ourselves. As a way of searching. As a way of fumbling around and trying to say, is this my voice? Is this who I am?

We still want to idealize moms, and sometimes we want to idealize actresses who are moms, too. I know that's something I've experienced, but we're all just doing the best we can and we're all trying to raise our kids and talk to them about everything that needs to be discussed.

You have to be the one setting your own goals, trying to achieve those goals.

But I think the only thing that annoys me about that is if I suddenly find someone on commercial radio or something like that, mimicking my voice or actions and trying to promote a product and pretending it's me doing it.

I think that people need to have the courage of their convictions and not be trying to fool people into thinking that they've changed overnight.

I have no problem with battling for a position. I have no problem trying to beat somebody out. It's a sport, competition, so I'm used to it.

Sometimes you can press a little bit and you're trying to do too much and you're trying too hard. You want to win so bad and you want to help the team so badly that you end up trying too much instead of letting the play come to you.

My favorite puzzle is trying to work out the parts myself, after all it is a solo effort.

The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right.

James Joyce was a synthesizer, trying to bring in as much as he could. I am an analyzer, trying to leave out as much as I can.

Well, I'm always working on my comic strip and trying to, you know, keep cranking that out.