When I was a kid my step dad started this business and would go out and get lost cows and stuff. He was part-time truck driver farmer and cowboy. He taught me how to ride from an early age.

After graduating from flares and platforms in the early 1970s I started drama school wearing a pair of khaki dungarees with one of my Dad's Army shirts accessorised by a cat's basket doubling as a handbag. Very Lady Gaga.

I didn't know my Dad - he moved out early. And my mom's politics were kind of hardscrabble. She didn't think about Democrats or Republicans. She thought about who made sense. I've been both in my life.

My dad was the district attorney of New Orleans for about 30 years. And when he opened his campaign headquarters back in the early '70s when I was 5 years old my mother wanted me to play the national anthem. And they got an upright piano on the back of a flatbed truck and I played it.

Rosa Parks' courage determination and tenacity continue to be an inspiration to all those committed to non-violent protest and change nearly half a century later.

The world will step aside for nearly anyone who has the courage of his of her opinions.

How many women have the courage to start properly with a cold cold bath early in the morning? I jump in throw the water cold as ice and after the first plunge I am happy.

Don't Make Assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings sadness and drama. With just this one agreement you can completely transform your life.

I jumped off a cliff backwards for 'I Am Number Four ' which was pretty cool. I'd never done that before. It took seven takes from different angles and luckily there were no injuries. I came close though. My head nearly hit the rock at one point.

Most of what I listen to now is mainstream jazz from 1935 right up to and including early bebop and cool jazz.