Cyndi Lauper

I come from a line of great Sicilian women, and their mentality is to endure and push through to the other side.

You always have to remember - no matter what you're told - that God loves all the flowers, even the wild ones that grow on the side of the highway.

The more you practice and study, the better you are... so I still practice and study all the time.

I believe in the power of poetry, which gives me reasons to look ahead and identify a glint of light.

The weird thing about grief, for me at least, was when each of my parents died, for a year or two afterwards I was pretty wildly brave - just willing to take life on.

I'm a big action junkie. I grew up on the '80s action movies - the bad ones and the good ones.