I never felt like I belonged in Minnesota when I was growing up there. That's why I was out the door as soon as I turned 18.

I had never done Shakespeare before, but I don't think you can be an actor and not do it. There were moments when I thought, I'm just not going to be able to pull this off.

To my mind the election was stolen by George Bush and we have been suffering ever since under this man's leadership.

So much of my sense of who I am is tied to mothering. When they left home, I fell into a huge, empty, black hole. Your children are grown and your career has slowed down - all the stuff that took up so much attention is gone, and you're left with expansive time and space.

I've always been a Democrat; it runs in my family.

I don't want to do children's music. I write kids songs, but the kids songs I write are for my kids - like when I'm putting them to bed. We sing some song that we made up but I don't want to make a record like that.

There have been some good studies done in California with Hispanic parents where in the course of a year, they have changed their entire nutritional intake for the better. The kid becomes, in a sense, the bridge between the educational process and the home.

I was tired of the same saas-bahu family dramas that I was being offered, so I took a long break.