To the people who love you, you are beautiful already. This is not because they're blind to your shortcomings but because they so clearly see your soul. Your shortcomings then dim by comparison. The people who care about you are willing to let you be imperfect and beautiful, too.

Let other people do it their way. What other people do is irrelevant.

"Make your plate look like a Christmas tree," I tell people, "mostly green with splashes of other bright colors."

On the issue of abortion, I'm ever on the fence, or, at most, an inch or two to either side.

I firmly believe that everyone deserves to live within walking distance of either beauty or convenience, if not both.

Cruelty to animals is an enormous injustice; so is expecting those on the lowest rung of the economic ladder to do the dangerous, soul-numbing work of slaughtering sentient beings on our behalf.

I need a spiritual connection - I can make changes, but I can't make miracles - and I need people around me who'll support me and believe in me and tell me the truth and not let me deceive myself into avoiding the what's scary and hard and necessary.