I used to sleep in the T-shirt I wore during the day and whatever ratty old gym shorts I could find on the floor. But one year for Christmas, someone gave me a very chic, comfortable pair of pajamas from Brooks Brothers, and I realized the error of my ways.

Bent Literary Agency had a Q&A on Twitter, and I took a chance and asked if the Black Lives Matter movement was an appropriate topic for a YA novel. Brooks Sherman, who is now my agent, responded that he didn't think any topics were inappropriate for YA. I remember being so terrified even just sending the tweet.

Ill habits gather unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.

I've always loved to paint - I was studying to do an art degree when I was approached to become a model - and I've being doing some design work as well. I also love just having a quiet time, sitting in my little library at home in Brooklyn and reading or watching documentaries or listening to music.

The first movie that I ever said was my favorite movie - and I've said for the longest - is 'The Producers,' Mel Brooks' original 'Producers.' The two lead performances from Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder are both unstoppable performances and then supported by amazing supporting characters throughout.

I was 15 when I read the script for 'Earth to Echo.' I thought it was amazing, and I couldn't think of turning it down. It's awesome for a kid from Brooklyn to have an opportunity to be on the big screen. And I had a great experience learning what the movie business is like. So, I'm glad I did it.

Tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.

I am a flawed person. A brook with many stones, a clear blue sky with many blackbirds. I have many shortcomings. A rainbow that's not long enough, a starry night with clouds. But I can only be thankful to the God who loves me just this way, and I can only be grateful to the people in my life who accept the clear blue sky with many blackbirds and who are patient with the rainbow that isn't long enough. And because of this, I am taught love, because of this I love my God, and I love these people.

I have good relationships with Hillary Clinton Joseph Biden and especially Richard Holbrooke - he is my teacher. I learned a lot of great things from him.

I think no one could have made peace in Bosnia besides Holbrooke.

For me Twitter works best as a way of taking pictures of being stuck in traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. If people really want to read really funny quips about life parenting and pop culture then by all means read Michael Ian Black's tweets.

Because of the Thames I have always loved inland waterways - water in general water sounds - there's music in water. Brooks babbling fountains splashing. Weirs waterfalls tumbling gushing.

I'm named after a horse. My mom's best friend had a horse named Brooke so my dad suggested 'Brooklyn' as a more formal version and it just stuck - and now I live in Brooklyn part-time so go figure.

I grew up in Marcy Projects in Brooklyn and my mom and pop had an extensive record collection so Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder and all of those sounds and souls of Motown filled the house.

I really like to look like a history book. I can look 1940s I can look 1970s hippie-chic or sometimes I'll pull that '80s Brooklyn hip-hop kid with the door-knocker earrings.

I was bused to a school in Gerritsen Beach in Brooklyn in 1972. I was one of the first black kids in the history of the school.

My life in Brooklyn was in constant danger because of my bad health.

And this our life exempt from public haunt finds tongues in trees books in the running brooks sermons in stones and good in everything.

Even though I grew up as a Sephardic Jew in Brooklyn where we ate Syrian food and went to temple it was still America.

I was raised by a single mother who made a way for me. She used to scrub floors as a domestic worker put a cleaning rag in her pocketbook and ride the subways in Brooklyn so I would have food on the table. But she taught me as I walked her to the subway that life is about not where you start but where you're going. That's family values.

Even though I never worked with her it was still really cool to have Brooke Shields on set. She was so nice and so funny.

My friends that are snobs think its cool I did a movie with Albert Brooks.

I went to an amazing school in Brooklyn called St. Anne's that's a really kind of creative hot bed.