My dad used to say, 'Just be yourself and you'll be fine,' but it's really, really true.Collection: Dad
I'm blessed because I had my mom as a teacher - sixth through eighth grade - and she is one of the best teachers I've ever had.Collection: Teacher
With Yale, my world got so big all of a sudden. At school, if you could dream it, someone would make it so that you could do it. It was magical. I had a lot going on, as you do when you're 17, and didn't necessarily capitalize on all of it, but it made me see possibility in a way that I hadn't before.
I did love 'Dirty Sexy Money' quite a lot. I loved my tenure at 'Scrubs' quite a lot. 'ER' might have been my favorite guest star thing. 'We Were Soldiers' meant a lot to me.
The First Lady is such a fascinating office to hold. You're not elected, but it's very much official. You can see the latitude of power of that office.
It's a lot of fun to just say to people, proudly, 'I get to play the First Lady.' It's just fun to say.
I'd love to go back and do theater. There's nothing like that instant response and the connection to a live audience.
Jackie O was so capable in so many ways. Hillary tried to redefine the role when she got into public policy, and Michelle Obama is able to move smoothly between form and function, style and substance.
I started singing when I was about 3 and dancing soon after. Mom just started looking for outlets where I could perform and availed herself of any opportunity she could in the mountains of North Carolina in the '70s.
I think you choose how you walk through this life. I think if you choose to participate in a paradigm that is looks-based, if you're an actor, then it can be empowering in some ways, and it can be really limiting in some ways in terms of time and longevity.
I used to be so hard on myself. So hard on myself. Just my own worst critic to the nth degree. Absolutely undermining my confidence in every moment. Bad tape in my head all the time.
I think true beauty is everywhere. Be it. See it. Notice it. Love it. Be grateful for it. Marvel at it. It's everywhere. It's all around us all the time.Collection: Grateful
That is what thrills me, personally. Small acts of kindness; thoughtful, large acts of kindness. I feel like we're in a bit of a precipice, and I think that any beautiful energy on the kindness continuum will just help us fall into a lovelier place.Collection: Beautiful
You gotta love yourself, because when you're hurting - you never know who's gonna be around to do the lovin' for ya. You gotta love yourself through the pain.Collection: Hurt
Nothing is all good or all bad, nothing is black or white, everything is just messy and human and difficult.Collection: White
I have to welcome the pain like I welcome the joy.Collection: Pain
Love is a true unconditional space to me. To love someone or to be loved is to be seen, and I think, gosh, as humans, all we want is to be seen, to be heard, right? To be valued. To be respected. But mostly just to be held in a safe, unconditional space.Collection: Thinking
From the fear and constriction that's sort of always pulling us back and keeping us in old modalities, I feel like any expansive act of kindness, thoughtfulness, and generosity, helps tip the scale toward a more conscious, liberated existence for everyone.Collection: Kindness
I feel it is a blessing, a duty, an honor, that we give the love that we have, and we share the lives that we have with our fullest heart.Collection: Heart
There's a lot of life on the planet that needs love, wants love, deserves love, in whatever capacity we are able.Collection: Deserve Love
If I'm feeling hurt, sad, lonely, depressed, and then I shame myself for feeling that, then that's a black hole for me. I really have worked a lot to meet pain with both gratitude and gentleness.Collection: Lonely
The more I resist anything, the stronger it gets.Collection: Stronger
There are a lot of women who feel that they have done all the work in their relationship only for someone else to step in and take the love and credit for it.Collection: Credit
The smallest act has repercussions for the universe.Collection: Smallest
The pain is always bringing me a lesson. If I listen to the lesson when the pain is manageable, the pain won't get gargantuan and flatten me entirely, because I will have received the message at the center. I receive it as gently as I can, because the cruelest thing that I do to myself is try to push myself through an experience.Collection: Pain
Sleep is such a potent, liminal state, and I don't want to drag anything in there that doesn't need to be there.Collection: Sleep
I wouldn't make it through the day without singing. It is my solace and my meditation and my release. It lets me know how I'm processing things, what I'm processing, if I'm out of touch in some area.Collection: Meditation
I get a lot of work done in my dreams and I don't want to take anybody else's work with me.Collection: Dream
I foster a lot. Not humans, animals.Collection: Animal
I have to meditate before I go to bed, always. I have to let the day go and let the eternal in.Collection: Bed
I will just think, why am I singing? Then I will know everything I need to know about what I'm feeling.Collection: Thinking