I'm a member of the Academy, but I don't know who all the other Academy members are. It's not like a politician who knows who is in the Iowa caucus.
You can equate acting to a tennis game: When you're playing one of the best, you get better.
If you want to be a writer, just write. There's no magic to it.
Nothing surprises me. After Donald Trump, nothing matters, does it?
Be generous and you can be the best person who ever lived.
If you paint, write, do mosaics, knit - if it's solving that part of your brain saying, 'I need to do this,' you've won.