I grew up on a farm in a small town where you do or say one thing and everybody knows about it. You see it happen there's always the town gossip - 'Oh did you hear about so and so or did you hear what went on in this household?' So I learned at a very young age just to keep my mouth shut.

There's a very small group of elite actresses who are my age who people want to work with. It's not easy to get a good job with good actors.

Oh if I had been loved at the age of seventeen what an idiot I would be today. Happiness is like smallpox: if you catch it too soon it can completely ruin your constitution.

By all but the pathologically romantic it is now recognized that this is not the age of the small man.

And in my own life in my own small way I've tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That's why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us - no matter what our age or background or walk of life - each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.

Better pass boldly into that other world in the full glory of some passion than fade and wither dismally with age.