It was always a funny thing when someone would ask me my name and I would say "Brooklyn." They would always think that I meant that I lived in Brooklyn, and I would have to clarify that.

I think you find pieces of yourself in every character you portray.

You pick pieces of things you've experienced in life to make it real to yourself.

I'm a pretty private person. I'm not "out there" out there. From living in New York City, I developed a certain awareness that you have to have when you live by yourself.

When you have parents who are recognizable, there's a certain part of you that wants to know that people you meet are able to not get clouded by that.

I was one of the serious studiers. I'm not somebody who just shows up and gets a hundred on a test.

When I was a kid, I always envisioned myself as performing, as being in that business. It was all that I knew, so it's kind of like I'm just following in the family tradition.

To me, my parents are my mom and dad, and we were able as kids to do a lot of cool things. Just being part of that family definitely brought out and cultivated the creative arts in us.

We live in a melting pot. More and more, people are some kind of mixture. Even if you're Caucasian, you're a mixture of something.

She chose messy, she chose wild. She chose life on her own terms.

Knowledge lets you swim and wisdom lets you fly.

Life is not so bad after all when you can breathe.

Journalism is the art of coming too late as early as possible. I’ll never master that.

Any son of a dictator, I'm sure, has major issues with their relationship with their father.

You can't fight fire with fire, or fear with fear.

I use other cookbooks for inspiration. I must say I tend to cook from my own cookbooks for parties.

I think one of the reasons with problems with conversation on race is that this is such a deeply personal conversation that it requires trust and someone you know.

When people know we are ready to use nuclear weapons, they're going to back off if we do something aggressive. So basically, nuclear weapons are always being used.

I believe that no concern of ours is too small or insignificant.