I don't think I realised how stressed I was, being a single parent. It was really, really stressful. It's not easy on anybody.

I have a history, a long history of being stereotyped as a five-foot-two woman, which is very limiting. I've worked so hard to create characters that have dignity. And I think everybody knows that I have a very pro-woman message in my work - and in my life.

If something seems frightening or horrible, I should probably do it.

I'd always ask my grandma, who was so, so smart, why she didn't work, and she would explain that her parents didn't approve of her working after she had children. She didn't feel like she had choices.

We each own one car, and we have a reasonable house. It's a lovely place to be, but it's not extravagant.

Your body is just a vessel for who you are as a person. And until you work on what you give back to the world, it doesn't matter what you look like on the outside.

One hundred percent my mother, who would always say, "If you want something done, do it yourself." She must have said that 100 times to me - as a child, as a young woman, yesterday on the phone.