I wanted to be an actor and I wanted to be a performer. Like Hugh [Grant] said earlier, we might all have this weird gene. Hopefully I will continue to have the talent to allow that gene to play itself out for as long as it can.

I write a lot on airplanes actually because it's completely isolating; there's no one to talk to, there's nothing to do.

Pneumonia is a disease that often flies under the radar of not just the public but even the global health community. It kills more children under 5 years old every year than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined.

I grew up doing musical theatre in Orlando, Florida. When I was 14, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time - a deliveryman heard me singing and offered to deliver my demo tape to Sony Music. I was just really lucky.

There are parallels between the music and film worlds, but they're really very different. I feel like they're just two different ways to channel my creativity.

When I was first starting out in the music industry, I was always coupled in the same sentence with Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera - and I was probably the worst of them. I think a lot of people back then thought, 'Mandy Moore... she'll probably go back to where she came from in a year.'

As long as you're fierce and you have that inner confidence with yourself, you can get through anything.