My mother was very strong. Once she picked up a coconut and smashed it against my father's head. It taught me about women defending themselves and not collapsing in a heap.

Well... Actually I got picked because I was the only one who fit the wedding gown - they had my size.

I got picked on a lot even by teachers too. I liked to listen to musicals and bake and my homeroom teacher found out and mocked me in front of the whole class for baking.

I think teaching should be an exalted profession not a picked-on profession.

My parents couldn't handle my energy so they enrolled me in every sport the school was offering. I didn't resent it because I loved sports and picked them up easily.

I was in Paris at an English-language bookstore. I picked up a volume of Dickinson's poetry. I came back to my hotel read 2 000 of her poems and immediately began composing in my head. I wrote down the melodies even before I got to a piano.

I like to think the movies that I've picked have something worthwhile to say. Something relevant.

Four hours of makeup and then an hour to take it off. It's tiring. I go in I get picked up at two-thirty in the morning I get there at three. I wait four hours go through it ready to work at seven work all day long for twelve hours and get it taken off for an hours go home and go to sleep and do the same thing again.

I had never picked up a basketball before. I went through a grueling audition process. It was almost as if I was learning to walk. It would be like teaching somebody to dance ballet for a role.

Acting has always existed alongside my normal life. It's been a case of learning on the job. I've worked in so many styles with so many people so I've picked bits up from everyone and everything.