Suddenly in high school, I'm in a predominantly Jewish atmosphere. Jewish people were my gate to white America.

Self-esteem does not come from surrounding yourself with people and things that seem to increase your value. Real self-esteem is an integration of an inner-value with things in the world around you.

You've heard that old expression from Shakespeare, 'Just speak the speech'? The words themselves will take you to the reality of the character. And so this led me to interview people.

Some people study a text very deeply. The people are my text. I study their words and what their words sound like, over and over again.

A lot of acting techniques are very self-oriented.

I mean, I think that - as an actress, in particular, I'm basically a fool, and I see the world upside down.

We spend so much time bantering about the words when the real open conversations might very well be our actions. I worry about our rhetoric.