This is going to sound weird, but when I was a kid my old man used to tell us that he was a Sioux Indian warrior in his former life. Native American culture was always big in my house - I don't know why.
Sitting on a plastic chair at night listening to the sea lapping below while sipping a cold beer is about as good as life gets.
When I wrote 'Southern Baptist Sissies,' that was the first time that I really ventured out into pure drama with themes where there was not one laugh sometimes. But I've always gravitated organically to blending tones and usually get good reviews about that. That's what life is about.
As an actor who has spent twenty years trying to crack America, the day I reached the 'Bloodline' set and found my name on a chair next to Sissy Spacek's was the happiest of my working life.
Softball has given me so much in life. It's taught me the kind of person I want to be, and given me a sweet sisterhood. It even led me to my husband.
Being an Orlando Magic dancer was definitely one of the most exciting times of my life. Being on the team was really like being in a sisterhood.
At some point, we're going to have to get to the point where, before you play football, I'm going to test you at some stage in your life to determine if you're susceptible to concussions. We need a test that shows us that your brain is situated a certain way that puts you at risk. If you are susceptible, don't play football.
Situational unawareness in the private marketplace or on the battlefield will cost you your livelihood or your life. In the Age of Obama, however, such willful ignorance is a job prerequisite. The less you know the better.
I train about six days a week. I'm training at the same intensity as I did when I was playing football. I've done it for my entire life, and I love it.
I'm really big on the gym and yoga. I'm at the gym at least six days. That is just getting there and creating those endorphins and sweating. And that routine also keeps me grounded in spite of whatever my life looks like.
You really, really, really have to love what you are going to do in theater because it is an unmerciful life. It's six days a week. It's eight performances a week. And that's doing the exact same thing over and over and over again.
I've seen kids turn their lives around. It's usually a kid who's outside of the team-sport world, or maybe has a darker personality or doesn't fit in. Skateboarding ends up being something they latch onto. It sounds hokey, but finding a focus on something - whether it's skateboard or playing your guitar - can be life changing.
I now get to have the life I wanted when I was 18 years old. Now, I'm like, 'I can buy any skateboard I want.'
For me, skateboarding is a lifestyle. I really don't know anything different. My life revolves around skating. If I wasn't a professional skateboarder, I'd still be skating every day.
I am quite handy; not to sound bragadocious, but I've been working with wood and building things my entire life. I used to be a skateboarder and built ramps with my father. Then, the first two years I lived in Los Angeles, I worked as a carpenter building sets.
Life is a lot like skateboarding.
Punk rock and skateboarding took the 'school' out of living your life, and I related to learning as I went, doing a lot of different things that I liked, when I liked. Consequently, I'm mediocre at all of the above, but still stoked on being a lifetime student of music, skating, painting, writing, etc.
Even in Canada, I never even played ice hockey. I never skated in my life; I always did rollerblade street hockey.
It takes tremendous will to compete in any athletic endeavor, so it meant going to bed early and getting my homework done in advance. I had to sacrifice things, like a social life, to be a skater at 15. But I loved skating so much that it was worth everything to me.
What I would do is when I was younger I would draw in a sketch book something that happened in my life and then write a little something on the side about what happened or what the story.
