My show ‚The Big House‘ was picked up; they flew me to New York. I’m about to step on stage to announce Kevin Hart’s ‚The Big House.‘ And a hand grabs my shoulder, ‚Kevin no, they just decided to cancel it.‘ It’s a serious smack-in-the-face business, and either you can take it, or you can’t.

For me, the way I stay consistent is through stand-up comedy.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.

Acting is happy agony.

Always fall in with what you’re asked to accept. Take what is given, and make it over your way. My aim in life has always been to hold my own with whatever’s going. Not against: with.

I could have spent eight years doing anything, and at some level, it would have been fine. I could have focused on flowers. I could have focused on decor. I could have focused on entertainment. Because any First Lady, rightfully, gets to define her role. There’s no legislative authority; you’re not elected. And that’s a wonderful gift of freedom.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

We didn’t crumble after 9/11. We didn’t falter after the Boston Marathon. But we’re America. Americans will never, ever stand down. We endure. We overcome. We own the finish line.

I don’t lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word.

The goal for me is always to have the opportunity to work in different genres. This is a great and exciting time in my career, where I can have the opportunity to work in different genres, and also I recognize there’s not a lot of actors who have that opportunity and I’m grateful for it.

If you can’t make it better, you can laugh at it.

Courage is being scared to death… and saddling up anyway.

I want you to feel happy and enjoy the theatre of my life the way that I do. No matter what happens with my music and wherever I go – that heart of that glamorous girl in New York will never be gone.

I don’t have a vast longing for the stage.

The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.

Acting is nothing more or less than playing. The idea is to humanize life.

Acting is just a process of relaxation, actually. Knowing the text so well and trusting that the instinct and the subconscious mind, whatever you want to call it, is going to take over.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

Nothing feels better than going onstage and everybody is singing every word – and actually wanting to see you.

The Premier League is one of the most difficult in the world. There’s five, six, or seven clubs that can be the champions. Only one can win, and all the others are disappointed and live in the middle of disaster.

If a whole bunch of people want to make your life a living hell, they’re gonna do it.

Someone said to me, ‚If fifty percent of the experts in Hollywood said you had no talent and should give up, what would you do?‘ My answer was then and still is, ‚If a hundred percent told me that, all one hundred percent would be wrong.‘

The art of acting consists in keeping people from coughing.

I love performing, you know, because, like I say, I’m a ham for this stuff.

We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved.

One thing Britons have always been celebrated for, and that is being able to stick it out in a tight place.

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

Growing up I didn’t watch movies.

You know, there is always times where you feel discouraged and things coming against you, but I don’t know if I ever wanted to throw in the towel.

In the struggle between yourself and the world second the world.

The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man… It is more powerful than external circumstances.

Truth is mysterious, elusive, always to be conquered. Liberty is dangerous, as hard to live with as it is elating. We must march toward these two goals, painfully but resolutely, certain in advance of our failings on so long a road.

The Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.

You can always think of something like the Xbox 360 as a super set-top box that can do everything the set-top box does, but then have the graphics to do the games as well.

We did it Disneyland, in the knowledge that most of the people I talked to thought it would be a financial disaster – closed and forgotten within the first year.

I was raised in a family where vulnerability was barely tolerated: no training wheels on our bicycles, no goggles in the pool, just get it done. And so I grew up not only with discomfort about my own vulnerability, I didn’t care for it in other people either.

People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.

Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

There are certain things that bother me and certain things that don’t. Personal attacks on me? I think I’m just so used to it.

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.

I think that people are interested seeing me on the screen.

My mom always wanted me to be an actor. And I started going to theater and going on auditions young.

You see some of the weirdest people in Detroit casinos.

I sent out a tweet, ‚Dancing with the Stars‘ should stop the jibber jabber. They shouldn’t make the departure of a dancer so tear jerky because nobody’s going to war.

Acting helped me as I was growing up. It helped me learn about myself, helped me travel, helped me understand life, express myself, all those wonderful things. So I’m very, very grateful; it’s a fun job. It’s a luxury.

We should learn to accept that change is truly the only thing that’s going on always, and learn to ride with it and enjoy it.

I’m a showgirl, as you can tell. I’m ever ready.

We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat us.

When my ancestors came from Africa, they were shackled by our neck, our wrists, and our ankles in steel chains. I’ve turned those steel chains into gold to symbolize the fact that I’m still a slave, only my price tag is higher.

Dealing with backstabbers, there was one thing I learned. They’re only powerful when you got your back turned.

When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.

Because we’re actors we can pretend and fake it, but I’d rather the intimate investment was authentic.

Most of us aren’t defeated in one decisive battle. We are defeated one tiny, seemingly insignificant surrender at a time that chips away at who we should really be.

I never listen to the radio unless I rent a car.

I feel lucky that I can have people laugh solidly for a whole hour by just saying what I think and getting paid for it.