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.

Whatever it is that gives you that confidence will vary from person to person, but I do believe that it is the key to succeeding at anything in life - career, relationships, anything.

All of the advice that I give, I'm not an expert by any means, but it's just my opinion. So if somebody likes me or likes y style or my career, I think they should have that feeling.

I grew up in a home filled with music and had an early appreciation of jazz since my dad was a jazz musician. Beginning at around age three I started singing with his band and jazz music has continued to be one of my three passions along with acting and writing. I like to say jazz music is my musical equivalent of comfort food. It's always where I go back to when I want to feel grounded.

We are the most brutal with the people we love the most.

When you say you're 40, you can't call yourself an ingenue any more.

I think people assume that women write about the domestic sphere. Women write about relationships and family. Men do, too, but then it's the Great American Novel.