Were Quotes

I grew up conservative because my mum was a conservative, and when I finally realized what conservatives were, I changed my mind immediately.

As a boy, I'd always had an interest in theater. But the idea at my school was that drama and music were to round out the man. It wasn't what one did for a living. I got over that.

I was born in a suburb of Paris, and I grew up there until I was 16, so there were always a lot of barbecues, a garden, friends.

We learned about gratitude and humility - that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean... and we were taught to value everyone's contribution and treat everyone with respect.

There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness.

I've always had a huge fear of dying or becoming ill. The thing I'm most afraid of, though, is being alone, which I think a lot of performers fear. It's why we seek the limelight - so we're not alone, were adored. We're loved, so people want to be around us. The fear of being alone drives my life.

For many of us who were born and raised in this country, including me, it's sometimes easy to forget how special America really is.

I lived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, until eighth grade, and then my high-school years were in Rochester, New York.

You know, bad poetry I wrote in high school can still be found on the Internet, and, you know, there's a Web log of our college newspaper. You know, there's so many different stages of my creative development are sort of on-record if somebody were to choose to look for them.

Yeah, I did see where the people dissing me were coming from. But, it's like, anything that happened in the past between black and white, I can't really speak on it, because I wasn't there. I don't feel like me being born the color I am makes me any less of a person.

The '90s were a bit of a disaster for me in so many ways. On a personal level, I don't think I could have toured. Also, I had some physical problems with my back that are now sorted and I just wasn't in the right state of mind.

Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty; but to be angry with it as if it were direct cruelty would be an ignorant unkindness.

If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.

Children are very addicting. Once they start growing up, you miss when they were little.

And we can see the positive impacts right here at Solyndra. Less than a year ago, we were standing on what was an empty lot.But through the Recovery Act, this company received a loan to expand its operations. This new factory is the result of those loans.

I used to forget that I was an Indian woman. I would even forget that I was a woman. I don't think of myself as bringing to the table a lot of 'women's issues.' I don't feel the need to write about maternity. I grew up thinking that the talented people in comedy were hard-joke writers.

I used to think that anyone doing anything weird was weird. I suddenly realized that anyone doing anything weird wasn't weird at all and it was the people saying they were weird that were weird.

All we can hope for is that the thing is going to slowly and imperceptibly shift. All I can say is that 50 years ago there were no such thing as environmental policies.

Children rarely want to know who their parents were before they were parents, and when age finally stirs their curiosity, there is no parent left to tell them.

If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

I was fortunate enough to work under directors who were, most of them, brilliant, emotional men.

Everyone who achieves success in a great venture, solves each problem as they came to it. They helped themselves. And they were helped through powers known and unknown to them at the time they set out on their voyage. They keep going regardless of the obstacles they met.

I really don't know anything else because my brothers were famous when I was two years old. So I know nothing else, no other life.

But I was the most unashamed lone parent you were ever going to meet.

The kind of vocal exaggeration that I developed was based on what key songs were in.

If one were to take the bible seriously one would go mad. But to take the bible seriously, one must be already mad.

If food were free, why work?

The deliberate and deadly attacks which were carried out yesterday against our country were more than acts of terror. They were acts of war.

Really, I was such a late bloomer, I really didn't learn how to be me until I was in my late '40s, which is when I started playing roles that were closer to me.

My parents were very supportive when I was growing up and have been all the way through.