My mother came from an Irish family of 11 kids and, of course, had a sister who was a nun, so I spent time at a convent and with an aunt and uncle who lived in New York and took me to the theater.

I read a lot of nonfiction - especially books about the brain.

Women don't take care of themselves because they take care of everybody else.

Let's play a game of whose life sucks worse ... I'll win, I always win.

I just don't want to be self-obsessed.

For me, being able to work with somebody who I don't have to translate my experience to all the time - that's important, because I'm not ­having to walk someone down the path of racial understanding to tell a story about a woman of color.

Cancer is something that touches everyone's lives.