I don't put the pressure on myself to be a very successful movie star. I want to enjoy being an actor and I want to be challenged by the roles I take.

If we're all living in ourselves and mistaking it for life, then we're devaluing and desensitizing life.

The reality is that who you are is who you are right this second, not who you were at any moment in the past because it doesn't exist anymore. It's done. It's over.

[We assume] that the self is an actual living thing, but it's not. It's a projection which our clever brains create in order to cheat ourselves from the reality of death.

From about the age of 5, I was aware that I didn't fit. I was the black, atheist kid in the all-white, Catholic school run by nuns. I was an anomaly.

When it comes to emotions, we all feel pain in the same way, everyone, whether you're from Istanbul or Beijing.

When I am out and about I feel watched. It's become second nature. The only time I get to be private is in my work. That is when I liberate the ego. The blessed-out sensation of liberating the ego.

~I've learned the value of absorbing the moment. I remember the first time Ripley saw her shadow. My God, it was like shadows had just been invented. It was the most exquisite moment.~

If I could change my appearance, I would have the gap between my front teeth put back in.

Having children is life-changing, to state the obvious. It's a gigantic shift in your life and I welcomed it.

I'd love to do yoga every day. I don't usually have time, but a few sun salutations go a long way.

Her smile is the simplest miracle that she can create anytime.

All our good and bad memories—they were like our B-side diaries. They were like those songs on old dusty punk albums that no one listened to anymore.

Progress for black Americans depends on good schools because education is the last great equalizer.

My thinking is that if we're going to take from a culture, let's take from a culture that has exemplified success for thousands of years.

You have to treat yourself every once in a while, get to the fun stuff!

The lie is, even if you do work out, you'll never look like Madonna. That's the lie.

The arts are statistically proven to increase independent thinking, creativity, discipline, balance, and academic improvement in children.

He was alone in the darkness once more, but the darkness became brighter and brighter until it was burning like the sun.

If thou art of elephant-strength or of lion-claw, still peace is, in my opinion, better than strife.