I suppose there are a lot of reasons to be jaded or sarcastic or bitter in life, but I hang on to the reasons why life is beautiful.Collection: Life
My mom's side of the family is from Arkansas!Collection: Family
I don't want to be famous for being famous.Collection: Famous
It is such a luxury to open a new book that's highly recommended by friends - either an inspirational yet humorously self-deprecating memoir, or a page-turning piece of fiction.Collection: Inspirational
I was raised in Oklahoma. I was actually born in Tulsa, but I grew up in a small town on the west side of Oklahoma called Elk City on a farm, where my dad grew up, actually.
When you're pregnant, things - at least for me - get very sincere and very wholesome, and it's about family, and singing becomes about warmth.
I think anything emotional adds to your acting and singing, no matter what it is that you go through. It will always add to it, never take away.
I don't ever think about the roads I didn't take because I spend too much time thinking what's ahead. I don't go backwards.
Some songs depend heavily on the character, but, for the most part, a great song begs for reinterpretation every time it is sung, even when in character.
Playing characters allows me to do things I may not always do, while singing in concerts allows me to really find my own voice and grow.
It's always hard - it's a little counterintuitive to leave your baby at any point during the infancy.
I was able to do concerts all the way up until two weeks before I had the baby; I thought I was stopping a month ahead, but he was three weeks early.
Everyone has these ideas, especially about the middle of the country, about people being backwards and three-toothed.
I feel so rich in my emotions and in my life and so grateful when I'm home and so grateful when I'm at work.
When I've done TV and film, when it's offered to me, I loved doing it, and I would do it again, but the ins and outs of auditioning is - that's time away from my kids.
'South Pacific' has a definite heaviness that people don't realize. It's got a seriousness and a message.
There is such a cliche to certain roles that all I can do is to try to make them realistic and work for the times, and so the audience actually won't see me as a caricature of something, but rather as an actual person.
I've had great opportunities to show different sides of myself, but the challenge will always be getting either people to let you do it or finding the right things to do in order to do it.
My great-grandfather, Peter O'Hara, was born in Ireland, I believe, in County Clare. His father, my great-great-grandfather, had actually come to America a generation before when times were very bad in Ireland. He worked in the Pennsylvania area and did well with horses and farming.
Corned beef and cabbage - that's our favorite holiday meal when all the O' Haras gather around the table.
I'm a mother, and when you have children, there's a protection. You'll do a lot to protect them, to do what's best for them.
I've always wanted my characters to have more dimension and realistic cores than the ingenue material often provides. It's been a challenge.
I think it can be a good idea to know what you do well and use that to open the door for yourself. Once you open the door, close it behind you, and start to make changes.
I don't mind talking about my family and how to balance it all. But, in today's world, we should probably be asking both women and men about work and family and how to balance the two.
We didn't have a lot of live theater in Oklahoma. I didn't visit New York when I was growing up. I watched movie musicals, and I believed in an idealistic, idyllic version of Broadway.
The hardest role that I've ever tried to play was Clara Johnson in 'Light in the Piazza' at Lincoln Center. It was the least fun I've ever had, but the most beautiful experience I've ever had. I could not understand her. I could not put my feet in her shoes. I came home every night, and I was depressed.
When you step out and do a song in a musical, the easier thing to do is make it funny. But when those transitions become necessary, when they aren't camp, that, to me, is magic. I've done musical comedies and enjoyed them, but subject matter that's deeper and more realistic is always what's appealed to me most.
If I get tickled in a certain way, I actually lose the ability to stand. I don't mean to, but something happens to my knees, and I fall on the ground.