My real name is Elizabeth, but I had a nanny growing up who called me 'Elizabeanie.' So from 4 months old, my brothers were, like, 'Let's call her Beanie.' To show people the validity of it, I always say that if I met the president, I would say, 'Hi, my name is Beanie.'

My whole life, not just in my professional career but in community theater, I played the supporting role.

I saw 'Brooklyn' so many times.

I did my first little kids' musical, 'The Sound of Music,' at 5, in a jungle gym, essentially. I was a made-up Von Trapp child, Ingrid Von Trapp.

Happiness does not come from football awards. It's terrible to correlate happiness with football. Happiness comes from a good job, being able to feed your wife and kids. I don't dream football, I dream the American dream - two cars in a garage, be a happy father.

The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.

We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never as bad off or as happy as we say we are.

Growing up, nobody I knew even knew a writer. So it was a big adventure and something that I've wrestled with my whole life. I think it's a journey worth taking, really finding out who you are and what you do well.