Singers From The United States

"A major revelation for me was the recognition that I am in a perpetual state of evolution, and not only is this acceptable, but it's actually wonderful"

"I think what I would say to her is No. 1 focus on self-love"

"London, England you were a dream! Nothing like getting the chance to travel with family. If you get the chance to go. Just do it! The lessons, the respect for different cultures, and cuisine are life-learning experiences the kids will never forget. Love my family. Forever grateful. ❤️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿."

"When you love — truly, truly love yourself — you start to understand self-worth, self-value, and what it is that you deserve."

"I've never been a fan of a G-string, I only ever wore one out of necessity on the red carpet or on photoshoots. Although what I wore was so revealing, I'm not sure you could call it a thong, perhaps just a piece of string."

"The coolest thing about awards season is celebrating together. What a great year it's been for Broadway. That I get to be included is amazing."

"You work with so many people of different backgrounds, especially in community theater. From aspiring actors to an optometrist who likes to moonlight (as a performer). It's such a weird and fun and funny environment, but I was so grateful. You are an amalgamation of all the people you've worked with or that encouraged you, or that you learned from."

"Not to say you can't make movies for the flock, that's great, too...I personally want to make movies that get to everyone. I want inspirational stories that inspire hope and faith to get to people that don't have a lot of hope and faith. I think this movie does that; there's a natural inspirational aspect to it you can't get around."

"Honestly, the biggest challenge is just my own brain."

"I’ve gone through points in this where I felt really confident, and I’ve gone through some really heavy moments where I thought, ‘I’m crap in this show.’ Then for this to happen, it really smacks you in the face and says, ‘Listen to your people that love you and that are telling you you’re doing good work."

"I know as an actor I don't want to sacrifice my morality or my integrity; I wouldn't be able to sleep at night."

"But I want to encourage people and not take things too seriously. I want myself and everyone else to feel at ease and feel like they’re in their safe place."

"Prayer and meditation are very important, which are also somewhat synonymous, I think, in some ways. Sometimes my prayer is meditation. Sometimes I’m just there and allowing God to take over what that time is. I’m not really saying anything as much as I’m just spending time. I think one of the most important things, at least for me, is taking my thoughts captive. Our minds are so powerful, but they are so easily, so easily hijacked if we don’t really go, ‘Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I’m doing it again. I’m starting to speak ill of myself again. I’m starting to be harsh or critical of myself. I’m starting to judge where I’m at in my life."

"Growing up, my love for theater was insatiable. I just love to make people laugh and clap and smile. When I discovered drama and the ability to move people to tears, it was so powerful. As much as you can feel like God created you to do something, I believe He made me to entertain."

"If you are taking shortcuts, cutting corners or essentially compromising your integrity... then you might get there, but how stable will it be? How long will it last? How fulfilling will it be? Look—I dunno—maybe there are people who've cut all kinds of corners and they get to the top and they're so stoked. But I can't relate to that type of person; I don't understand."

"We all stumble, we all fall, we're all broken. But to highlight someone who, even through all that imperfection, is still trying to do what is right, to hold on to what is most valuable."

"I was running to lots of other things, whether it was sex or drugs or booze or things to distract me from, to numb myself from the pain that I was running away from most of my life. The irony is that booze can give you this temporary relief, but then the next day amplifies that anxiety tenfold. So, then you’re running back to get more and it just becomes this vicious cycle."

"My career was in a place where I felt like even though I had accomplished so many things up to that point, I was still, and to be honest, even now, I still feel this way. I feel like I’m a bit on the outside looking in. I’ve never really felt like I am a part of whatever the cool kid group is."

"I think it causes the business to probably take you a little more seriously and to believe in you more. That’s a meaningful thing to me. This is something I’ve now done for 45 years. I treasure every single day that I’m on a set. I think anyone who’s worked with me would agree that I’m not bored or jaded or any of those things. For me, it’s still an utter privilege to do this for a living. I never forget that for a second."

"A lot of people misunderstood why I was doing what I was doing, or even what I was doing. Then other people were actually kind of pissed off about it. Or they were worried I was going to make a fool of myself that it was somehow undignified or just weird."

"I think you learn something from everybody that you work with if you allow yourself to do that. What you might learn is to just be freer or braver. That's part of what you take away from an experience like that, and you grow. You might be a little less afraid the next time you work with somebody whose mind works like that."

"It’s changed a lot. As a mother, when my kids were younger, I have to admit, I looked for the juiciest role I could get that would shoot in the smallest amount of days so that I could keep being a functioning mom."

"I thought they were saying this because they felt my music wasn’t good enough, and I needed to write with other people to make it better. Being open to everything and always saying yes, It was very frustrating for me because I have a really strong work ethic. I’ve never missed a performance in my life, so I’m sure not going to miss a co-writing session."

"I've spent 26 years with this man. If I could sign up for 100 more lifetimes with him, I would do it right now because he is just one of the great people on this planet."

"We have to keep learning over and over in life not to worry about what people think or at least not to let that worry drown out what our heart's desires are."

"When I came round I felt very odd, It was like I had headphones on and I was listening to music. It didn’t go away. I wasn’t sleeping at night. It was as though my mind had become a musical tornado, and whatever came in front of me got whirled into it."

"I'm nicer than I am. Like most people I have a dark side, but because of roles I played early on people tend not to guess that."

"If people call me a songwriter, I am honored to be called that. I’m keenly aware that I’m lucky to get to work with these writers."

"That life keeps teaching me how little I actually know. I used to think I was going to die wise, and now the one wisdom I have is I know very little."

"I think there is something at Christmas that challenges us all to think about being generous to others. To reach out and maybe give people a little joy. Maybe that’s why I love doing Christmas movies. It’s a way of being generous with oneself and I like that."

"To be honest, when you have four kids and one grandchild, and one on the way, and a marriage that you are very blessed to have, I don’t want to work all the time."

"Part of the beauty of being this age is that it doesn’t feel like it’s for ever. You can be overwhelmed, or you can go."

"I got a feeling, I feel so strange, Everything about me seems to have changed. Step by step, I got a brand new walk, I even sound sweeter when I talk."

"I was just sitting here thinkin’ of your kiss and your warm embrace, when the reflection in the glass that I held to my lips now revealed the tears that was on my face."

"I would rather, I would rather go blind boy Than to see you walk away from me child, and all. So you see, I love you so much That I don't want to watch you leave me baby. Most of all, I just don't, I just don't want to be free no."

"When I look out at the people and they look at me and they're smiling, then I know that I'm loved. That is the time when I have no worries, no problems."

"I wanna show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll are all just really one thing. Those are the American music and that is the American culture."

"It feels so good to be happy."

"All I ever wanted in my life as an actor was a safe, exploratory environment to just play and act, without being worried about if it’s going to turn out alright on camera, what the box office is going to be, what is the press going to say, what’s the review going to be like. Acting in its purest form."

"I’m not physically a super expressive person. I think I’m pretty put-together."

"When I was a teenager in Georgia, I always felt like the odd one. I never felt like I fit in. My dad and I would go to Blockbuster and look for Asian films and we could never find any. If we saw a Jackie Chan movie, we would watch that because it was so comforting to see a face similar to ours."

"America has taken small baby steps of progress towards having more inclusion and diversity in Hollywood. It's optimistic. I'm hopeful, but there is so much more work that needs to be done."

"Even while filming we knew how important it was that we get this opportunity to showcase our culture and our uniqueness, but also, as human beings, our stories, our emotions, and, at the end of the day, our humanity."

"I’m incredibly close to my family and I think family is such an important thing, in Asian culture especially. This really spoke to me personally, but hopefully the audience will resonate with that as well. Not only Asian audiences, but also audiences from all over the world, everyone and anything can relate to the unconditional love that you share among a family and between family members. No family is perfect. We all have our differences, misunderstandings, and ups and downs. I hope people can see that we are who we are because of our family and because of our ancestry, and respect that."

"I wanted to break boundaries for myself as an actor, where it's not to tell the story and do a good job, but to go to another level where I feel free."

"In China, literally in elementary school, we have to sit a certain way. You can't raise your hand anytime, you can’t speak in class. So, it takes a lot of courage and experimenting to kind of try to break that."

"I learned so much about myself that I didn't know prior. You're just constantly outputting, and giving all you know so you don't have time to look inside of yourself and to really reflect. The four years at drama school really gave me that time and space. I got to know myself much better, I think as not only as an actor, but as a person. I was reassured about my passion for acting. I was more confident coming out of drama school."

"When I worked in Asia for a long time, I just felt like I needed a break. I needed to relearn everything about myself and unlearn a lot of things."

"It was important not only to me personally, but also for all of us who were involved, that it sets an example of Asian excellence for a more prominent presence in Hollywood, and also globally."

"For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to be a "Broadway actress." I think I came out of the womb singing and dancing, and performing was the one thing I always had my heart set on."