“Be kind to yourself.”

Catty is not cool. I can’t think of anything less becoming than a man who talks about people behind their backs.

I was not a girl who grew up buying $100 candles. I was the girl who ran out of gas on her way to an audition.

If you have an Ina Garten-level roasted-chicken recipe, it’s a game changer. I bring that to dinner parties and make a lot of friends.

I love connecting with the fan base and sharing my experiences.

It was the late ’70s when my parents met. My dad was a lighting director for a soap opera, and my mom was a temp at the studio. They moved into a house in The Valley in L.A., to a neighborhood that was leafy and affordable.

Food makes travel so exceptional, because you get to taste what it’s actually supposed to taste like. To eat the real Pad Thai or finally have a proper curry is something pretty amazing.

While my life shifts from refugee camps to red carpets, I choose them both because these worlds can, in fact, coexist. And for me, they must.

I’m an actress, a writer, the editor-in-chief of my lifestyle brand ‘The Tig’, a pretty good cook, and a firm believer in handwritten notes.

Who you are as a person will only be amplified once you are ‘famous,’ so if you had a good heart, then I would imagine you’ll have the same good heart but the means to do even more with it.

I do think there’s some value to really throwing yourself into food and embracing where it comes from.

I think so much of what we learn when we get older is being comfortable in our own skin and learning what looks good, and not being so trend-centric.

To describe something as being black and white means it is clearly defined. Yet when your ethnicity is black and white, the dichotomy is not that clear. In fact, it creates a grey area.

It’s really important that young women be reminded that their involvement matters and that their voice is heard. Even if it feels like it’s small, it really can make an impact.

On a normal day, I love a shift dress with flats and a little cropped jacket. That, for me, is my travel wear if it’s not too chilly – you can throw a scarf over your legs if it’s cold on the plane!

Be able to delegate, because there are some things that you just can’t do by yourself.

I grew up in L.A. in a school that was diverse, but it was not really integrated, so I didn’t ever fully fit in with the black girls or the white girls or the Latina girls.

Kindness – that simple word. To be kind – it covers everything, to my mind. If you’re kind that’s it.

Always think, ‘what’s the worst that can happen’ and have some kind of strategy to deal with it.

Writing for me is a kind of compulsion, so I don’t think anyone could have made me do it, or prevented me from doing it.

More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness

You can be rich in spirit, kindness, love and all those things that you can’t put a dollar sign on.

A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves – a special kind of double.

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.

Consideration for others is the basis of a good life, a good society.