One of the greatest things drama can do at it's best is to redefine the words we use every day such as love home family loyalty and envy. Tragedy need not be a downer.

Great tragedy has come to us and we are meeting it with the best that is in our country with courage and concern for others because this is America. This is who we are.

Remember always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember others may hate you. But those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

Shortly thereafter some friends encouraged me to try out for the Miss South Carolina World beauty pageant. To my surprise I won - and was sent to New York City to compete nationally.

The world is a crazy beautiful ugly complicated place and it keeps moving on from crisis to strangeness to beauty to weirdness to tragedy. The caravan keeps moving on and the job of the longform writer or filmmaker or radio broadcaster is to stop - is to pause - and when the caravan goes away that's when this stuff comes.

The art of mastering life is the prerequisite for all further forms of expression whether they are paintings sculptures tragedies or musical compositions.

I think I would cope like anyone copes with any tragedy. I'm sure I would be very upset for a while and then there would come a point where I would either have to stay in this place of darkness and anger or I'd have to accept that it happened.

Everybody knows about Pearl Harbor. The thing that really fascinated me is that through this tragedy there was this amazing American heroism.

My mother encouraged it so much. She was so supportive. Even if as a kid I would do the dumbest trick which now that I look back on some things she would love it she would say that's amazing or if I'd make the ugliest drawing she would hang it up. She was amazing.