In the end, the sign of Aretha Franklin’s artistry is that she always leaves her mark – first, on the music, then on us.

I definitely want to play someone who’s inspired me. I would love to play Aaliyah; it would be personal because I love her so much.

They wanted to make her less rural, less of a cartoon. Not that Southern woman are cartoonish – they’re the strongest women in this country, but with Val they wanted to take the stereotypical things...

Timidity makes a person modest. It makes him or her say, ‘I’m not worthy of being written up in the record of deeds in heaven or on earth.’ Timidity keeps people from their good. They...

She’s been a smack addict, she’s had big success in Europe in the ’70s, and she’s lost everything. She’s been rediscovered in the ’80s, and as we meet her she’s just about to sign a...

So you eat, you sleep, and then this wonderful child comes out, but you don’t feel like you have any control over that process, over her, over her character and who she is.

My job always is to play a person, not to judge her.

No man is good enough to govern any woman without her consent.

Tramaine Hawkins has been a mentor, a confidante and an example of greatness. She has been through a lot in her life, and her career has spanned over 50 years. To me, that’s what you...

Well, my career choice made a difference because I never would have met my wife, Jenny. I met her through comedian Buddy Hackett. He set us up on a blind date and then we got...

She unbent her mind afterwards – over a book.

A mother never realizes that her children are no longer children.

I have this dog named Marley, and it is a kind of love I had never known. I have a hard time believing Marley did not come from my body. I know that sounds insane,...

Would I put my daughter in a private all-girl school? No. Would I put her in a private co-ed school? Yes. Would I put her in the school I went to? No way.

I have a special child and there are not a lot of services around for that special child, and so we picked out a school that would be a very good school for her.

With her high pale brow under her faded brown hair, she was like a rock washed clean by years of her husband’s absences at conventions, dinners, committee meetings or simply at the office.

When Lady Gaga says I am her inspiration, you reach kids between 12 and 18. Now I am like a brand – jeans, Coca-Cola.

My mother is a survivor who’s had a lot of things happen in her life that have been very trying.

When you have a daughter, you want to protect her from the things that I’ve seen out there, you know, the things that’s out there that ain’t good for her. It’s a crazy world we...

When she smiles at you, you will feel like the whole world in yours. If you really love her; else her smile wouldn’t matter.

I don’t know what any individual should do about crossing her own borders. I only know that I live a happier, more adventurous life, by crossing borders.

There’s no way I’m going to put this kid in the movies, because of the rejection. It’s so hard as an adult, so why set her up to feel that bad as a child?

I’m into everything. My iPod is very eclectic – if you kept it on shuffle, you’d be amazed. For example, I was forced to grow up on Dolly Parton. My mum was obsessed by her....

I just did this movie with Kristin Wiig called ‘The Skeleton Twins.’ That’s a straight drama. We play estranged twins, and I end up moving in with her and her husband, played by Luke Wilson....

My favorite action movie growing up was ‘Supergirl.’ It wasn’t good by any stretch of the imagination, but it was my favorite because I wanted to be her. I have a Supergirl tattoo.

Normally, an actress has to work to bring out her male side. In our case, the dynamic is reversed. The actor playing her modelled himself on Sharon Stone.

She’s been married so many times she has rice marks on her face.

If there’s a problem, we at Wine Library never tell ourselves that once we handle this issue, we’ll never have to deal with the person again. We talk to every single person as though we’re...

When Disney was creating Elsa, they based a lot of her movements on that of a ballerina, which was interesting for me to find out because I actually did ballet years ago. That definitely informed...

But there’s always a Mass. It’s not a formal Mass at all. We’re sitting around her dining room table with wine and Eucharist and holding hands. It’s very informal and small, but to me that’s...

I was excited to play Lil’ Kim and I wanted to do the role justice. I worked really hard on that role, whether it was performing the rhymes, studying the dialect, her swagger and her...

In any relationship that comes to an end, there’s never just a baseline reason why. You say, ‘Oh, I broke up with my girlfriend.’ Someone says, ‘Why?’ You say, ‘Well, you got three hours? And...

For that story, I took as my subject a young woman whom I got to know over the course of a couple of visits. I never saw her having any health problems – but I...

My daughter is a preschooler but I have only known her for a while. She is adopted.

There was one very special scene at the end of the film. My character, Zhao Di, has been sick. She wakes up and her mother tells her that the man she loves has come back...

Writing is not a competitive sport. Everyone that writes has his or her own voice.

I haven’t spoken to my wife in years. I didn’t want to interrupt her.

The happiest moments of my childhood were spent on my grandmother’s front porch in Durham, N.C., or at her sister’s farmhouse in Orange County, where chickens paraded outside the kitchen’s screen door and hams were...

She used to diet on any kind of food she could lay her hands on.

I’m not thinking about me that much anymore. Every time I look, I’m looking for my daughter, you know? If I’m in a store, I’m looking at baby clothes. It’s so much cuter to find...

Being constantly with children was like wearing a pair of shoes that were expensive and too small. She couldn’t bear to throw them out, but they gave her blisters.

The maid that loves goes out to sea upon a shattered plank, and puts her trust in miracles for safety.

When I had a child, everyone was telling me that I was going to see the world through her eyes, and everything was going to get this nice gloss to it. I kept waiting for...

Where there are large powers with little ambition, nature may be said to have fallen short of her purposes.

To hear my mother say, ‘Michael is dead,’ to feel and hear the tone in her voice to say her child is dead, is nothing that anyone can ever imagine.

What makes a narcissistic mother so scary? Her absolute power and controlling influence. A narcissistic mother is your only ‘friend,’ at least until you’re old enough to go to school.

You’ve got to realize that any lady on a soap is devoting her life to it, 24/7.

Like a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I’ll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want you to write it. And then sometimes you see a situation and think,...

A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.

A man can do a television interview and roll out of bed 15 minutes before; it’s just not the same for a woman. A woman has to pay attention to her hair, makeup, clothing, and...