By far the most important factor in the success or failure of any school far more important than tests or standards or business-model methods of accountability is simply attracting the best-educated most exciting young people into urban schools and keeping them there.

Acting is not a mystery. There's nothing that I know that other actors don't know. We all act we're all actors we all know the same thing. The only thing that separates us is experience.

Acting is a very personal process. It has to do with expressing your own personality and discovering the character you're playing through your own experience - so we're all different.

I think theatre is by far the most rewarding experience for an actor. You get 4 weeks to rehearse your character and then at 7:30 pm you start acting and nobody stops you acting with your entire soul.

I believe that being an actress or being involved in a movie has to be a life experience otherwise why go for it? I have to change me and I have to learn things and I have to push me and my limits. By acting I find a freedom inside of a prison in a way.

Film is such a bizarre vehicle for acting. It's such a bizarre experience. I don't think you ever really get familiar with it. If you do get familiar with it you're probably not that good anymore.

Acting can be a narrow and isolated experience because you only examine your particular part.

I wouldn't go up on a stage now if you paid a thousand dollars for one minute of acting. It's a nasty experience. You're up there all by yourself. You're so damn exposed.

I did a play called Throne of Straw when I was 11 at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles. It became really clear to me at that point that I enjoyed acting more than any other experience I was having.

The wonderful thing about acting is you move along with your decade. The older you get the more interesting the parts you get to play and you bring more of your personal experience to the part.