I absolutely adore Thanksgiving. It's the only holiday I insist on making myself.

I know. I'm lazy. But I made myself a New Years resolution that I would write myself something really special. Which means I have 'til December right?

Every Christmas now for years I have found myself wondering about the point of the celebration. As the holiday has become more ecumenical and secular it has lost much of the magic that I remember so fondly from childhood.

When I was eight years old I got a dummy for Christmas and started teaching myself. I got books and records and sat in front of the bathroom mirror practising. I did my first show in the third grade and just kept going there was no reason to quit.

For a long time all I wanted for Christmas were books about outdoor survival. I was convinced that the woods were calling me. I camped a lot I took classes. At 18 I told myself if I don't live in the woods by myself by the time I'm 25 I have failed.

I'm bad on Valentine's Day but even worse on Christmas. I go shopping at nine o'clock on December 24th every year. Nobody else is there. I'm in Toys'R'Us all by myself. I get there five minutes before closing.

The cheese board is my big treat at Christmas that I have to deny myself during the rest of year.

I don't pay to have my dirty work done for me. I do it myself.

My ideal relaxation is working on upholstry. I spend hours in junk shops buying furniture. I do all the upholstery work myself and it's like therapy.

The biggest risk I've ever taken is going on American Idol and trying to be myself. I wasn't going to try too hard to conform and I knew that it could possibly not work out.

I take the work seriously just not myself in it.

I write to keep from going mad from the contradictions I find among mankind - and to work some of those contradictions out for myself.

Look I eat really well and I work out but I also indulge when I want to. I don't starve myself in an extremist way. You're not taking away my coffee or my dairy or my glass of wine because I'd be devastated.

I think I should be active politically. Because I look upon myself as a politician. That's not a dirty work you know. Some people think that there are something wrong with politicians. Of course something wrong with some politicians.

I wanted to be a doctor that I might be able to work without having to talk because for years I had been giving myself out in words.

I myself would like to become more disciplined within my work.

I feel sorry... for people who've had skinny privilege and then have it taken away from them. I have had a lifetime to adjust to seeing how people treat women who aren't their idea of beautiful and therefore aren't their idea of useful and I had to find ways to become useful to myself.

I wouldn't call myself a feminist because I think there are differences between men and women.

Women complain about PMS but I think of it as the only time of the month when I can be myself.

In my work and in myself I reflect black people women and men as I reflect others. One day even the most self-protective ones will look into the mirror I provide and not be afraid.

Women like myself CEOs can pave the way for more women to get to the top.

Even by common wisdom there seem to be both people and objects in my dream that are outside myself but clearly they were created in myself and are part of me they are mental constructs in my own brain.

I do interviews because it's a chance to be myself. I sometimes wonder what I could have to say that would be of any interest. I don't have any great wisdom.

I always envisioned myself having a traditional and elegant wedding.