I always thought it was strange when these artists like Kurt Cobain or whoever would get really famous and say 'I don't understand why this is happening to me.' There is a mathematical formula to why you got famous. It isn't some magical thing that just started happening.

I worked on scores. I went to the musical library in Berlin which is very famous. I discovered that we had scores of Beethoven printed scores of Beethoven that are full of mistakes. Not the wrong or false notes but the wrong dynamic understandable things.

I think that people who are famous tend to be underdeveloped in their humanity skills.

At last in 1611 was made under the auspices of King James the famous King James version and this is the great literary monument of the English language.

I'd love to live in Ireland but I'd like to live as me not what someone thinks I am. People don't understand - I lived there before I was famous.

It was deeply important for me to understand where Mandela came from. Because we know where he was going and that's a famous story but who was he? Where did he come from? What was his upbringing?

I always loved working as an actress but I didn't understand why I couldn't just opt out of being famous. And then I realized you can and I think I did. And eventually I came to understand that you can do that and also keep working.

I could have been a dental hygienist with nothing bad ever appearing in print about me but that's not how I've chosen to lead my life. I knew that you put yourself under a microscope the more famous you become.

I have a profound empathy for people who are in the public eye whether they manifest it themselves or whether it happened by accident - it doesn't matter to me. I think there's a great misunderstanding of what it is to be famous.

But I am Armenian and I understand what it is to lose a country and lose a family and have massacres and genocides and everything against my people.

The U.K. needs a system for family migration underpinned by three simple principles. One: that those who come here should do so on the basis of a genuine relationship. Two: that migrants should be able to pay their way. And three: that they are able to integrate into British society.

I grew up in a family where the internalized understanding was that the kids were going to grow up into a better world. I worry because I don't think my kids are going to have that. The world is very scary. The world would be scary without the choices the current administration made but they just exacerbated it. And it ticks me off. I want my kids to have a good life.

Anyone that has a job that takes them away from home I think can understand the difficulties in maintaining consistency not only with your family and those you love but with your friends.

Long before we understand ourselves through the process of self-examination we understand ourselves in a self-evident way in the family society and state in which we live.

I was the black sheep of the family and my mother never really understood me.

Given my last position that I was the first U.S attorney post 9/11 in New Jersey I understand acutely the pain and sorrow and upset of the family members who lost loved ones that day at the hands of radical Muslim extremists. And their sensitivities and concerns have to be taken into account.

I eat a little bit of everything and not a lot of anything. Everything in moderation. I know that's really hard for people to understand but I grew up in an Italian family where we didn't overdo anything. We ate pasta yes but not a lot of it.

I'm still very connected to my family to the world I grew up in. I understand what it means to be afraid that you can't pay a doctor's bill. Or to have to make the choice between buying a band uniform for a seventh-grader and making the insurance payment on time. That will never leave me. It was how I lived until I was well into my adult years.

I grew up in a family of strong women and I owe any capacity I have to understand women to my mother and big sister. They taught me to respect women in a way where I've always felt a strong emotional connection to women which has also helped me in the way I approach my work as an actor.

People had this image of the Jacksons as the perfect American family and I destroyed that image. But what people have to understand is writing that book was very healing for me.

I understand what it's like to come with your family and to uproot yourself and come to another culture. You need a lot of support. People say 'She's got her daughter she's got her husband.' Yeah but she hasn't got anyone else.

Having family responsibilities and concerns just has to make you a more understanding person.

Women are in my view natural peacemakers. As givers and nurturers of life through their focus on human relationships and their engagement with the demanding work of raising children and protecting family life they develop a deep sense of empathy that cuts through to underlying human realities.

Do it no matter what. If you believe in it it is something very honorable. If somebody around you or your family does not understand it then that's their problem. But if you do have a passion an honest passion just do it.