Quotes about Personal Growth

I think for anything to change, in the real world, people have got to change on the inside and that's what we want to start, to get people to think and do more themselves and get involved in whatever they want to get involved with.

Certainly a decade and a half out in the real world, bashing my head against things, probably made me into a more textured writer. It gives you something to write about.

When you're in school, every little mistake is a permanent crack in your windshield. But in the real world, if you're not swerving around and hitting the guard rails every now and then, you're not going fast enough. Your biggest risk isn't failing; it's getting too comfortable.

As with real reading, the ability to comprehend subtlety and complexity comes only with time and a lot of experience. If you don't adequately acquire those skills, moving out into the real world of real people can actually become quite scary.

I would like my kids to go to college and be exposed to the real world and to make their own decisions and find their own path instead of sending them somewhere where they would be creatively conditioned for one life path or another.

I grew up listening to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, and it took me getting out into the real world and understanding what I faced as a woman in my career to really open up my eyes.

Most people don't remember the guy from 'The Real World.' They know the guy who is a professional, a father, and a friend that gives great advice.

The whole point of college is to find yourself, to figure out things before you go into the real world.

Since I started working at 15 and never went to college, I didn't know what it was like to be in the real world. I was in my bubble - until I got married, my life was either in a car, on the set, or on location.

'She's Gotta Have It' and 'School Daze,' I really didn't know what I was doing. And the biggest indicator of that was the acting. 'Do the Right Thing' was like the first film where I really felt comfortable working with actors.

I never wanted to become a CA. My father was keen that I become one because he thought that was the right thing for me to do. I didn't have the courage to tell him that I don't want to do it. But now, I can't thank him more for having put me through it.

I agree with myself on 80 percent of things, but when I look at myself in the mirror in the morning, I still have inner debates about the right thing to do.

If you change because of fame, that's not the right thing. But if you change because of growth, that's normal... The whole fame thing hasn't hit me. And I hope it kind of doesn't.

I think it's always natural for children to rebel against their parents and establish their own identity. And also, I think parents get invested in, you know, doing the right thing? And so their anxiety about being good parents might, in a way, affect a relationship negatively.

With the music that I've put out, I realized that putting pressure on an album isn't always the right thing to do for yourself.

When I got out of undergrad, I had a degree in theater and telecommunications. My first job, I was a news reporter for the local stories for NPR. Then I was a country-western DJ. I did data entry for a yearbook company. In my mid-20s I went back to grad school at NYU, and I specialized in playwriting.

I'd taken, like, maybe some African dance classes a couple of times, but I wasn't a musical theater person at all.

There's a social element of me that's pretty reserved. High school was when I was starting to come out of my shell because of the theater community.

I wanted to be a doctor when I was a kid, but I started doing theater in high school because it was a requirement. At first, I was completely irritated. But I ended up loving it.

I finished high school and college - I actually moved to New York to study film - and was always working in theaters and studying. You never stop learning.

Theatre demands different muscles and different aspects of one's personality.

I started singing in my church choir, and then when I got to middle school, I had the coolest musical theatre director, and we actually did 'The Wiz' in seventh grade, and I was Addaperle, and my grandma was like, 'Why didn't you audition for Dorothy?' But I was too nervous for that.

'Babel' is a continuation of a project; it's not like now we are more theatrical. We've grown up, seen places, been places, and that is shown in this album.

The biggest competition is myself. I am not looking to follow others or pull them down. I'm planning to test my own boundaries.