I do get a little disheartened when you hear about how many girls get discouraged to not pursue a career in the sciences, and I feel like seeing women that are portrayed in this way - and beyond that, just three dimensional, complicated women - those are always going to be the stories that I gravitate to most.

Independence feels like a luxury, where the reality is that it's hard to survive financially for so many people out there.

I think it's perfectly fine and interesting to have someone get married at a young age and have kids at a young age.

I am really fortunate to have parents who supported my plan to become an actress when I was a little kid. And then there was my grandma. She was the best. She was always there and ready to drive me to all my plays and stuff.

I think it's up to the parents to discern what their child is watching on television.

I began my career performing in plays and musicals in New York, but by the mid-'80s, opportunities in Hollywood beckoned and I made the move to Los Angeles. It was a good decision. Work took off, but most important, I met my family out there - my husband, Bill, and the children we would adopt: Elijah, Mae-Mae, and Aron.

My father had been in the German Diplomatic Service, and although he had been in the United States since World War II and out of diplomacy, it was something that was very much talked about in the family. So when I went to college, it was always my intention to try to get into the Foreign Service.

I grew up in East Berlin, in a family of artists.