There's something in this country that is so opposed to understanding the complexity of children.

People from New York have been calling, to see if I'm still alive. When I answer the phone, you can hear the disappointment in their voice.

Yes, there have to be places for safe wonderful stories.

We're supposed to do all these things which trouble us deeply because it's so against what we naturally would want to do.

Many of the books I loved as a kid, that even my mother read as a child, are very slow going. Today's children are not as patient. The best example of this is 'The Secret Garden,' which I adored as a child.

I always knew I was going to do something with music, but with my whole family being in the business, acting was something that was just mine. But when I was 20 or 21, I started writing songs and felt the itch to make a record.

I've been an activist since I was a teenager. I was always curious about what we would now call social justice. I remember just trying to navigate growing up poor in an overpoliced environment with a single mother and a father who was in and out of prison.

Family is family. I grew up in a household where all the four-legged animals were as important as the two-legged animals.