Whenever people ask me how I manage to get through this whole crazy time of being incredibly famous and sort of an icon and supposedly a role model and all of this insanity, I always cite my family and then books. I don't know what I would have done without books.

I think once you sort of cross over and you realize what books can be - and if they mean something to you - there's just no stopping you.

I think we do live in a very specialized society, where once you think about somebody as one thing, it's hard to change that. But I do a lot of things. I act, I write, I sing.

The wonderful thing about books is you never run out of them, you can just keep going. So I'm always finding new writers, or old writers that I just happen not to have read.

I can't' really sing a song unless I really connect with the lyrics.

If you leave home for a while ... you question the conventional wisdom you've grown up with. That doesn't mean you have to change your opinions or who you are, but it's good to ask the questions.

In life, there is always that special person who shapes who you are, who helps to determine the person you become.