Before this learning experience I had assumed that with regard to programs that sought to help people out of poverty the political world was essentially divided into two camps: conservatives who opposed these for a variety of reasons and liberals who supported them.

Actually music gave me the support when I needed it. I would never have gone to college unless I'd gotten a piano scholarship. And now I'm so glad I got to learn to play the cello which is a different experience you're flexing a different muscle but it's beautiful because it is music.

A great deal has been written in recent years about the purported lack of motivation in the children of the Negro ghettos. Little in my experience supports this yet the phrase has been repeated endlessly and the blame in almost all cases is placed somewhere outside the classroom.

The bullied straight kid goes home to a shoulder to cry on and support and can talk freely about his experience at school and why he's being bullied. I couldn't go home and open up to my parents.

One nice thing about being a woman in Hollywood is that the women tend to be very close-knit. All of us writers and directors know each other and cling to each other for safety and support and it's really a completely different vibe than the men experience out here where they're all trying to murder each other.

You got to fight for quality art and equality and all the things that we're fighting for the things we believe in. Choice and preference and all those things that we support. We don't want to give up that fight. You got to keep doing it.

It is crucial that members of Congress cast votes that are supportive of the values upon which our nation was founded: equality freedom and opportunity for all people.

For a modern woman it is important to be supported and that there is equality in every aspect and that it's not two halves that make a whole - it's two wholes that make a whole.

I've always been a strong supporter of environmental protection and initiatives in that area. But I'm willing to set priorities. If we have to make reductions in one place we'll have to-in order to increase another place I'm willing to do that.

The Body Shop Foundation is run by our staff and supports social activism and environmental activism. We don't tend to support big agencies.