Music has always been my back door to life. It is important for people to find something that excites them. I like the concept that if you do what excites you you will be rewarded generously whatever form reward takes which is not necessarily money.

A lot of people in the media and some everyday people really aren't in search of the truth. They're in search of something worse than that. Money yeah. I think the media's the kind of a thing where the truth doesn't win because it's no fun. The truth's no fun.

The trouble with our people is as soon as they got out of slavery they didn't want to give the white man nothing else. But the fact is you got to give em something. Either your money your land your woman or your ass.

Find something in life that you love doing. If you make a lot of money that's a bonus and if you don't you still won't hate going to work.

To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money and that is sincerity and integrity.

Whether it's a 16-year old girl or a mom or a guy or anybody as long as they come up and they're excited to meet me 'cause they've had some sort of relationship with something I've created it's the coolest thing ever. It never gets old. It's awesome.

When you have lost people like I lost my birth mom at a young age and you remember the whole process of losing her you want to grab on to something that makes you whole.

I had really great parents who always gave me lots of opportunity for choice but I didn't always realize how rare that was for a girl for them to say 'You can be a mom or have a career or do both or do something we haven't thought of yet.'

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 13 and it was something we weren't really aware of as a family.

I am very proud of my mom and consider her the most courageous woman I know. With perseverance sacrifice and hard work she raised a family of Olympic athletes and gave us the tools and the spirit to succeed. That is something that my brothers and I will always be thankful for.

In third grade I was taking tap-dance lessons and about six weeks before the recital I wanted to quit. My mom said 'No you're going to stay with it.' Well I did it and I was bad too! But my parents never let their kids walk away from something because it was too hard.

Just recently I was in Target with my mom shopping and out of the blue I see this father and his two daughters and he says 'Can they get a picture with you?' And I'm thinking to myself 'Am I the one millionth customer or something?'

My mom thought I might be good for voiceover. She thought I had a cute voice so maybe I could do a cartoon or something. And while we were looking into that we also thought I should get into theater acting so I tried it and the first audition I went on I booked it. And it kind of just snowballed from there.

At 3 years old I was imitating and doing fun little commercials for the family. Then at 5 I knew 'OK this is something I really like.' At 8 I was crying in front of the mirror and my mom was like 'Oh boy here we go. We know what she's going to do.'

I had so many offers after 'True Blood' for things that were someone in the same vein but nowhere near Alan Ball's vision. Or something that was over-the-top and fantastical. And I've always wanted to play the regular working-class mom and I've never really had the chance to do that.

I didn't really know what I wanted to do and then I got this call from a casting director in Los Angeles. She remembered me from something years before and she called my mom wanting me to audition for this thing.

My mom didn't ever think I would take to acting because I was a very shy very reserved kind of child. But obviously something changed!