Religion. A daughter of Hope and Fear explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.
I write for those women who do not speak for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We've been taught that silence would save us but it won't.
I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized and I still had a daughter who I adored and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
I don't feel I was ever a 'famous' child actor. I was just a working actor who happened to be a kid. I was never really in a hit show until I was a teenager with West Wing playing First Daughter Zoey Bartlet. In a way that was my saving grace - not being a star on a hit show. It kept me working and kept me grounded.
I'm learning as I go. I don't know everything. I never had anybody to look at nobody ever taught me and where I'm from I didn't have any famous role models.
While we are being fascinated by the tales of famous serial killers and how they were brought to justice the real serial killer goes about his business with hardly a thought to being caught.
I studied Hitchcock a little bit at University and knew the famous story about the Birds - that he'd tortured Tippi for a day using real birds. I had no idea that it was a five-day onslaught and that it was the tip of an iceberg that carried on through to another film.
Hitler was so modern in that he was obsessed with being famous. He was caught up with this rush to be have achieved greatness before turning 30.
Humans have a fraught relationship with beasts. They are our companions and our chattel our family members and our laborers our household pets and our household pests. We love them and cage them admire them and abuse them. And of course we cook and eat them.
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.
My family truly believes they are better cooks than I am. They see me as Giada not as a celebrity chef. To them I'm just me - their granddaughter niece etc. and they're older and wiser. I like that because it keeps you grounded.
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.
I only tour in short bursts I'm only ever away from my family and three daughters for a month or two.
My own mother always taught me that fairness was a family value - I think equal pay is about fairness for everyone.
Growing up I was taught that a man has to defend his family. When the wolf is trying to get in you gotta stand in the doorway.
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.
My wife my family my friends - they've all taught me things about love and what that emotion really means. In a nutshell loving someone is about giving not receiving.