Friendship is a wildly underrated medication.
Artists are the people that no matter what, pick up the pen, pick up a paintbrush. They take the time to translate what is happening to create something that resonates deeply with the rest of the people that are caught in the middle of their own reality.
I'm interested when things are upside down - because there are so many possibilities in that one moment. There is a lot that is exposed.
Identity is an assemblage of constellations.
President Obama called for a 'we' nation in his Inauguration Address. Art convenes. It is not just inspirational. It is aspirational. It pricks the walls of our compartmentalized minds, opens our hearts and makes us brave. And that's what we need most in our country today.
I think we need leadership that helps us remember that part of what we are about is caring about more than the person right next to us, but the folks across the way.
I was a mimic when I was a child. I mimicked the teacher and made friends that way, actually. That was a very subversive activity, because I was a goody-goody who never got in trouble. But if I went off in the corner and mimicked the teacher, people loved it.
A lot of acting techniques are very self-oriented.
People in power have to be careful about what comes out of their mouth. They have to find exactly the right word that can't be attacked.
I am lucky: I have fantastic doctors and a fantastic dentist.
Listening is not just hearing what someone tells you word for word. You have to listen with a heart. I don't want that to sound touchy-feely; it is not. It is very hard work.
I don't talk a lot when I interview. My job is to get out of the way.
Not that many people, even contemporary writers, write about right now.
Learning is a tunnel experience that makes us think more broadly.
I love studying how people are. Not just what they're saying, but how they are, what they're doing.
Racism has been for everyone like a horrible, tragic car crash, and we've all been heavily sedated from it. If we don't come into consciousness of this tragedy, there's going to be a violent awakening we don't want. The question is, can we wake up?
I call the language of political figures, pundits and administrators 'the haute couture of language.'
My work is about giving voice to the unheard, and reiterating the voice of the heard in such a way that you question, or re-examine, what is the truth.
I see myself as not a typical theater person, but a person who uses the theater as a place to meet people and explore ideas.
I mean, I think that - as an actress, in particular, I'm basically a fool, and I see the world upside down.
