I got a phone call from George Miller [the director] asking me to play this role. We sat down and he showed me on his computer a documentary-type montage sequence of real penguins swimming, in an Esther Williams synchronized sort of way, and doing things I have never seen them do. Then he explained his vision of the film, asked me to read the script and to voice the character. I was cast a little bit later, and he let me do the singing as well!

Sometimes we love people so much that we have to be numb to it. Because if we actually felt how much we love them, it would kill us. That doesn't make you a bad person. It just means your heart's too big.

I always wanted to be a young mom, but generations of women have worked so hard so we can have a career and wait to have children. So I say carpe diem - take advantage of that.

Tired is not a word in my vocabulary.

I think if there's something one needs to change with oneself, it doesn't have to happen in the New Year. You can do that any time you please - not that it's not a good inspirational tactic for the people that it works for.

Individuality is vitally important. When people start to lose their individuality is when I believe they start to lose themselves. I think children are born with this message, and it shouldn't be taken away from them. I hope they walk away with it after seeing the film, and adults too. And I notice it also with myself, because the older I get, the more I embrace my own idiosyncrasies.

I can't believe that people actually know my first and last name. I think it's really, really, gosh-darn neat.