Then I realized that secrecy is actually to the detriment of my own peace of mind and self and that I could still sustain my belief in privacy and be authentic and transparent at the same time. It was a pretty revelatory moment and there's been a liberating force that's come from it.

I think I first realized I wanted to be in country music and be an artist when I was 10. And I started dragging my parents to festivals and fairs and karaoke contests and I did that for about a year before I came to Nashville for the first time. I was 11 and I had this demo CD of me singing Dixie Chicks and Leanne Rimes songs.

I was a total athlete. I loved sports but when I realized I wasn't going to be a professional athlete I realized I wanted to be in movies.

De Niro was a hero of mine. And Sean Penn. But I've realized I can't operate at that level of intensity. That's okay for movies. On TV when you live with horror day in and day out you have to protect yourself.

When I started to watch some of the films I'd done I realized I was doing movies that I might not actually want to see.

I have realized that I hate going to the premieres of the movies that I'm in. Because I feel this tension after the movie is over that everyone feels obligated to say something nice to you. It's so unnatural and uncomfortable.

I realized this is what God has dealt me and I should be thankful considering all that's happened to me in my life but MS caused the movies to stop - stop dead - and I miss it.

I woke up on the plane this morning and was turning on my phone and I had to put my pin number in. That's when I realized that since the age of 10 I've been using 2012 as my pin number. But now that I've won gold in the 2012 Olympics I've achieved that goal and for the first time in 14 years I'll have to change my pin.

I started writing morning pages just to keep my hand in you know just because I was a writer and I didn't know what else to do but write. And then one day as I was writing a character came sort of strolling in and I realized Oh my God I don't have to be just a screenwriter. I can write novels.

My salary situation at 'Morning Joe' wasn't right. I made five attempts to fix it then realized I'd made the same mistake every time: I apologised for asking.