My dad's name is Vernon and my mom liked the initials, V. V. My sisters and I got named Victoria, Valerie and Vincent so we'd be V. V.'s, too. But, then when you start getting pets' names that start with a 'v,' it's a little embarrassing.

I was a bed wetter till very late. My mom used to hang my sheets out the window to dry, and I'd have to run home from school in order to beat the other kids to my house so they wouldn't see them.

I played football. I wrestled. Those were team sports and I played for the school. When I was younger, I played kick the can and stuff like that. I loved that.

I probably follow all sports a little bit. I like hockey quite a bit. I like football. I like college basketball when it gets down to March Madness. I like baseball. I enjoy them all. I watch them all.

The thing about Chicago is that it really isn't like any other place. The architecture and the layout of the city are the best. I'm from the Midwest, and consider myself a Midwesterner. I feel most at home there. I love California. I have great friends in California. I just have always considered Illinois to be home.

I've always been a fan of a Johnny Carson because he was so great with an audience and not afraid of self-deprecating humor.

My approach as an actor has always been the same, in that the greatest gift that you're ever going to have is your imagination because you're not going to have all life experiences. So you draw on things that are sort of close to it but you spend your time expanding on it or drawing something specific on whatever your situation is.

Dream small dreams. If you make them too big, you get overwhelmed and you don't do anything. If you make small goals and accomplish them, it gives you the confidence to go on to higher goals.

Failure is a word that I simply don't accept.

My mother was the influence in my life. She was strong; she had great faith in the ultimate triumph of justice and hard work. She believed passionately in education.

To succeed, one must be creative and persistent.

I always figure from the cradle to the grave, we all have our individual journeys, and maybe my journey was a positive one and I accomplished certain things without stepping on too many toes.

I always considered myself as a character actor. I always try to be versatile to show different sides of human experience.

Spending two years on my uncle's ranch in Montana as a young man gave me the wisdom and the thrust to do westerns.

What people don't understand about Sarah Palin is that she is a rancher's wife. From Alberta down to Texas I've known women like that: good common sense, bright and vilified by city people.

I've always remembered something Sanford Meisner, my acting teacher, told us. When you create a character, it's like making a chair, except instead of making someting out of wood, you make it out of yourself. That's the actor's craft - using yourself to create a character.

We shot many films in Delhi that turned out to be successful at the box office. So the attachment is definitely on the positive side.

Just as you can't blindly follow fashion, you can't follow fitness, either.

Growing up, my parents treated my brother and me with absolute equality.

I will share a personal experience: my father was posted in Jammu & Kashmir during the Kargil war. I remember my mom sitting in front of television throughout the day reading tickers which had name of the martyrs.

I do have moments when I feel insecure. I do have moments when I feel jealous, and that's normal. It's a very normal emotion. It's your action and your attitude and your reaction to that that is important.

I have got good films, and I am thankful to Aditya Chopra. He put a lot of faith in me.

Sometimes I get extremely disturbed with the things that are written. But you can't do anything about it. As a celebrity, you are putting yourself out there to be judged, and that's fine. I am now learning not to get affected by such things. I am building my career and making choices that I think are right while minding my own business.

I don't think I was a good model. I think I was born to emote and act. I would walk down the ramp and smile and they used to say, 'Give us a blank look.' It was really difficult not to smile.

We tend to think of politics as bad, full of dirty tricks, negative ads, big campaigns, but I am here to explore the original meaning of politics, which is positive and has to do with balancing competing interests and looking for solutions.

In the end no segregationist scheme has withstood the force of a simple idea: equality under law.

We live in a great country. It's time again to get religion about it.

Talk of citizenship today is often thin and tinny. The word has a faintly old-fashioned feel to it when used in everyday conversation. When evoked in national politics, it's usually accompanied by the shrill whine of a descending culture-war mortar.

Sometimes when I listen to fellow progressives, I wonder if the only lesson we took away from the '04 elections is that politics is a word game.

You have to listen to the people who have a negative opinion as well as those who have positive opinion. Just to make sure that you are blending all these opinions in your mind before a decision is made.

You'll never convince me there is a hopeless situation or there is any finality in any success or any failure.

I think the new generation is much more demanding about respect for the environment than we have ever imagined.

The time is right for electric cars - in fact the time is critical.

The role of leadership is to transform the complex situation into small pieces and prioritize them.

When you're CEO, you have to have two conditions: first, shareholders need to trust you and want you to head your company. The second is that you need to feel the motivation to do the job. So, as long as both are reunited, you continue to do the job.

Design is important, it's an important dimension in the car. It's not the only one.

I approve designs not because I think I am more gifted or somebody who can see ahead three or four years from now, but just to make sure that the design is a logical, rational decision, taken after analyzing pros and cons.

When I come to a design decision, people know that is that.

Perhaps one of the only positive pieces of advice that I was ever given was that supplied by an old courtier who observed: Only two rules really count. Never miss an opportunity to relieve yourself; never miss a chance to sit down and rest your feet.

Of course, I do have a slight advantage over the rest of you. It helps in a pinch to be able to remind your bride that you gave up a throne for her.

A boy is holding a girl so very tight in his arms tonight.

Some people never contribute anything positive to society, they may even drain our resources, but most of us try to do something better, to give back.

Happiness is within. It has nothing to do with how much applause you get or how many people praise you. Happiness comes when you believe that you have done something truly meaningful.

People who don't travel cannot have a global view, all they see is what's in front of them. Those people cannot accept new things because all they know is where they live.

I've never considered myself a celebrity or even part of the entertainment business. I'm a cooking teacher.

If I could only have one type of food with me, I would bring soy sauce. The reason being that if I have soy sauce, I can flavor a lot of things.

After my first ad, I was flooded with offers, which I took up. Soon, I decided that it could be a lucrative business with a parallel college life.

I have grown to understand that no matter where we come from, human beings, at heart, are the same. Defining ourselves based on race, religion, and ethnicity is like betraying that.

My followers consistently engage with my content and rely on my recommendations for making decisions about where they travel or how they spend their leisure time. There's no space for trolls.

Road trips are amazing because you get to see the true India from a street level and interact with people from different states that have so much pride in their local heritage, food, and customs.