Growing up I had amazing parents who really let me be creative and free. I was the youngest of three by six years, the child who was the outsider and observer. When I went off to Boston to act, I was very young - 10. And my parents didn't fear that. They had the respect to let me make my choices.

It's people who are repressed and cannot express their fears that are dangerous.

What I don't have in theater is editing.

In America, the word art has become like the word adultery. It's this big scarlet letter. When you say you're an artist, people are like, "Ugh."

People have become so literal because they're used to reality-based television.

That's my policy - to be positive, to just hope that something will happen. If you start with all your fears, your receptivity is for the negative.

When I was thinking about The Lion King, I said, we have to do what theater does best. What theater does best is to be abstract and not to do literal reality.