When I first became famous I didn't know if I could go where I wanted to because I didn't know how people were going to act. Some folks would scream and holler and I didn't know what to do with that.

We played in Texas about a year ago at Emo's the famous country and western club in Austin. And I figured well if I'm finally gonna die onstage that's where it's going to be!

Quentin is very organic there was no way that he was going to put someone else's hand in there and anyway my hands are kind of famous. It seemed right.

Kids will keep it real. If I've ever had in my life a great anchor it's them. They get in your head 'don't get too famous.' If you think you're really famous and think you're really hip go hang out with your kids for an afternoon. That's about as earthbound as it's going to get.

There's always going to be that pressure when you're in front of the camera. When you're famous it's just an extreme version of reality and there's a pressure to look a certain way.

My name's Jennifer Ellison and one day I'm going to be famous!

The first pork-barrel bill that crosses my desk I'm going to veto it and make the authors of those pork-barrel items famous all over America.

I was a shy kid but somehow I knew I would make it as a performer. I'd always be telling my mum that I was going to be a famous singer. In my school yearbooks I would write 'Remember me when I'm famous.' I knew I had a gift.

You know be an actor because you love to act. Don't be an actor because you think you're going to get famous because that's luck.

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?

It wasn't being an alcoholic - it was going wild. It happened when I got famous. It was like having my teens in my early thirties: blotting out your life not having to think about anything.

I don't know if this is the kind of retrospective analysis that people are fond of applying to their work or actions but it feels like I knew I was going to be famous and I knew that an element of that would be traumatic so that if I could make myself something big and otherworldly it would be a kind of defence.

You do not want to get married at 22! Especially if you're famous because girls are going to be throwing themselves at you.

When I was going for my graduate degree I decided I was going to make a feature film as my thesis. That's what I was famous for-that I had my thesis film be a feature film which was 'You're a Big Boy Now.'

I think it's useful as a famous person to have as little separation between the perception of you and how you really are - because otherwise I'd be sitting here thinking I'm keeping secrets and wondering when you're going to find out.

I've never sat there and plotted out how I was going to become successful or famous.

I'm not comfortable being around too many people. I don't like being out in public too much. I don't like going to bars. I don't like doing celebrity stuff. So most of the characters I play are people who don't always feel comfortable beyond their small circle of friends.

I think with motherhood and child-rearing in general everyone's going to tell you how to do it and why. I've always said to other mothers and women when they've asked me that you have to find your own way and find out what works for your family at all costs.

It's one of the worst-kept secrets of family life that all parents have a preferred son or daughter and the rules for acknowledging it are the same everywhere: The favored kids recognize their status and keep quiet about it - the better to preserve the good thing they've got going and to keep their siblings off their back.

The voters are going to decide in November who is going to fix their personal family dismay over not having jobs in America. They are going to pick Mitt Romney.

I don't want to be reincarnated that's for sure. When you've had rewarding experiences in your life - a loving family friends - you don't need additional reassurances that you're going to do something with a new cast of characters. I'd just as soon pass.

The name Van Halen the family legacy is going to go on long after I'm gone.

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.

It's a tremendous responsibility to be direct descendants of the prophet Muhammad. This family has had the burden of leadership on its shoulders for 1 400 years. I'm not going to drop the ball on my shift.