When I graduated from high school, the teacher said I was throwing my life away following music, and the same teacher invited me back to speak at the school. I don't say that to brag, I just want to be an example.
Just to be nominated, and especially as a new artist and a female artist, is a feat. Winning anything is just a bonus.
Writing never had the immediate gratification I was looking for.
2018 has been such a fantastic year for me: working on some hard-hitting documentaries, as well as 'Strictly,' has been a real treat.
I was 40 years old before I became an overnight success, and I'd been publishing for 20 years.
I had a very bad first experience of Shakespeare at school, and, now I'm determined to put that wrong right and just make Shakespeare as vivid and live as possible.
That's the life, really, isn't it? You write. You record. You play. And it never grows old.
Working with Rosshan Andrews has been wonderful.
The experience of creating my adventure games was, other than marrying my husband and bringing into the world my two sons, the most fulfilling, wonderful experience I ever had.
I don't read my own books, but sometimes if there is a new edition I open it and then I feel this life of a writer was not so hopeless, not so bad.
For me, to have had an impact with anything that you've done, whether it's a painting, a photo, a poem, or something that you've created, just that experience is enormous. You don't get that all the time.
There are those special projects that don't ever feel like work but just a blessing to be a part of, and 'Revolution' is one of those projects.
Right now the thing that I have learned the most is to be grateful that I have finally gotten to a point where I am being paid to make films, after eight years.
You make sacrifices to become a mother, but you really find yourself and your soul.
It's so rewarding the journey that I've been on.
Writing provides no guarantees. And writers who stay with writing do it for reasons that are larger than self.
Nothing good gets written without the writer suffering along the way, in my opinion. Writing should be a pleasure, but unless you feel almost broken many, many times in the journey to a novel, you haven't pushed yourself hard enough.
I'd like, each time out as a writer, to reinvent who I am and what I'm doing. That's one of the great pleasures and rewards of the occupation.
For me, running a set and directing has been the most rewarding thing of my life and a happy surprise, because it was never really on my radar.
Because of people like that guy in San Francisco who told me it changed his life, 'Teen Witch' is my most favorite thing I've ever done. I see how happy it makes people, and that makes me happy. The great thing is that no one realized it was going to become all these things when we were making it. We thought we were making a very serious movie.
A book is not a short-term project. It's essentially your baby, so it takes a lot of work.
Working on 'Girls' opened up a lot of opportunity for me. It's like a dream job. It's a dream.
Being the lead of the show and working a lot of hours - all good stuff, a tremendous education, incredible opportunity, it changed my life - it was a marathon, and by the end of it I was pretty beat.
My Olympic voyage has continued because it is so rewarding.
Ever since I found out I got the part on 'Gilmore Girls,' my life has been changing in so many ways. It seems as though all we get is good news. I'm just so grateful to be a part of it. It's a wholesome show with an edge. I have no idea how we pull it off.
