When my children were growing up, we began every family meal - which included breakfast and dinner every day - with a prayer. We are Jewish and so it was the prayer over bread, when we were having bread, or the catch-all prayer for everything when we weren't.

The situation around Terri Schiavo was a deeply held conflict over what to do if someone isn't going to return to consciousness or competence. Who will decide? Even there, where we had settled legal rules, we still had disagreement. We're torn about these things.

In the time when my mother began standing up against prejudice and racism, the vast majority of white Americans rarely thought about civil rights.

My mother saw nothing inconsistent in her traditional desire to look after her husband and children and her radical politics. She began her civil rights work before most people had ever heard the word 'feminism,' and in those early years, she was focused on racial justice.

My family loves movies. My dad and I used to eat a huge breakfast, and then we'd just go hang out at the theater all day together. We loved movies like 'Indiana Jones' and 'James Bond.' We were both big action-adventure movie fans. So I kind of grew up with an appreciation for film.

I was a very difficult child, and the time I spent reading was about the only peace I gave my mother.

The Bhatts are an amazing family and a production house to work with, and I guess anyone will back me up for this.

Coming from an African background, obviously the foundation of the family home is education, probably because my parents had to work a lot harder for everything that they've got in this country.