America believes what's good for us is good for the world. It's very difficult to understand that that's not necessarily true.

Books transmit values. They explore our common humanity. What is the message when some children are not represented in those books?

I had seen the ballet of Swan Lake as a child but it was as an adult, when I saw a production featuring Erik Bruhn, that I first noticed how significant a part the ever-present threat of violence played. This juxtaposition of great beauty and grace with a backdrop of pure evil stayed with me for years.

America believes what's good for us is good for the world. It's very difficult to understand that that's not necessarily true.

My dad was a janitor for U.S. Radium Corporation, and he stayed there for 37 years. So he didn't read.

Everything in life is made up...You make up that you are happy. You make up that you are sad. You make up that you are in love. If you don't make up your own life, who's going to make it up for you? It's bad enough when you die and everybody can make up their own stories about you. —Mr. Hooft

Sometimes I feel like I have walked into the middle of a movie. Maybe I can make my own movie. The film will be the story of my life. No, not my life, but of this experience. I'll call it what the lady who is the prosecutor called me. MONSTER.