Everyone has a self-destructive nature in them. It's whether you feed it or not. You don't have to be a pop star to feel connected to destruction or self-destruction. But self-destruction is self-obsession, and self-obsession is not really possible if you're engaged in raising children. And if you have a spiritual life, you're constantly being asked to see yourself as one small fragment in the bigger picture.

Being poor in Africa is something people in America can't relate to. Part of the challenge is bringing that reality to people and moving them. You have to arouse compassion.

I don't believe there's a certain age where you can't say and feel and be who you want to be.

I go to Malawi twice a year. It's where two of my children were adopted from, and I have a lot of projects there that I go and check up on and children who I look after. It's sort of a commitment that I've made to this country and the hundreds of thousands of children there who have been orphaned by AIDS.

I have great respect for Sean Penn. It's like most relationships that fail. It's not one thing, it's many thing that go on over a period of time.

I don't like rooms you never use or that are wasted space but I also like a sparseness and a cleanness.

I think that everyone should get married at least once, so you can see what a silly, outdated institution it is.