When someone comments on my weight, I have to work hard to stand in front of the mirror and say, "This is who you are. You're okay in this lady, and you're a great, healthy, lovable and loving person." I try to accept myself.
I used to stand in front of the mirror in my bedroom. I shared a bedroom - like a lot of people in my era, in my neighborhood - with my two brothers and an uncle. And I'd stand there in front of the mirror over the dresser and I would practice: meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views of Cicero, Bacon and Baba.
When I woke the next morning in my room at White's Motel, I showered and stood naked in front of the mirror, watching myself solemnly brush my teeth. I tried to feel something like excitement but came up only with a morose unease. Every now and then I could see myself-truly see myself-and a sentence would come to me, thundering like a god into my head, and as I saw myself then in front of that tarnished mirror what came was 'the woman with the hole in her heart'. That was me.
I learned really early on that I had to treat it as if it were a real job. This might be my middle class background - the Irish work ethic, which isn't quite the same as the Protestant work ethic - but still, it's, 'Get a job and show up every day. Be there. And don't complain. Who do you think you are: you're nobody special; go to work.'
One time I can stand fiddling in front of the mirror for an hour and another time I think: well hack, this is just the best it can get. Only if I have to go to work I really try to look fantastic.
It's easy to be critical of ourselves and other women around us. We stand in front of the mirror and only focus on the things we hate about our body and our appearance. But I encourage you to change that attitude the next time you are in front of the mirror.
I'm an early riser. I work out really hard. I push myself; I get my job done, and at the end of the day, there's a Guinness waiting for me.
I jog every day, but I haven't had plastic surgery - though that's not to say if one day I look in the mirror and go 'Ugh!' I won't have something done.
I decided to lock myself in. A forced segregation. Sabbatical. A retreat into myself. My selves. Play hide and go seek in the looking-glass. The mirror angled at the foot of my bed. Twisted reflections bouncing off into infinity. Obsessed with my image, the myriad of distored figurines who danced in front of me in rapid succession, every feature exaggerated, every slight imperfection a new delicacy.
I'm always excited to be around other actors. I sometimes only get to work with myself, and it's so tedious. I was so excited to go to work every day, and we ran into work every day.
I used to stand in front of the mirror and listen to Hezekiah Walker all day. I thought I was a member of his choir and direct people that weren't there.
I understand how people who don't play stop doing their work. That is why I push myself every day.
I knew I had to be the gay stereotype that was on the front of the papers every day. And I did my job well. I played the game.
I have to look after myself. I go to the gym every day; I have physio every day, I have a couple of guys that work with my body a lot.
The first day I can remember looking into a mirror and being able to stand what I saw was the day I had a guitar in my hand.
I try to be a good person every day. If you didn't like me, there would be something wrong with you, because I really go out and work as hard as I can to help people. I put myself last - always. I'm a giver all the way.