"I'm really into tall boots. I just got some new ones from Michael Kors that have these little gold studs. I have Valentino ones that I really love. Real, real tall boots!"

"I've been dancing all my life, but I never did it seriously."

"If someone is trying to bring you down, it only means you're above them."

"Maria Canals-Barrera is Cuban and from Miami and I'm part Cuban and from Miami, so needless to say she became a quick friend."

"Music is a big part of my life. I listen to different genres, and I choose the music that will inspire the next part of my story."

"My big break was becoming the spokesperson for Texas Instruments. Casting directors really started giving me a chance to read for projects."

"My dad would call me his Cuban princess because I had really dark olive skin because I was always in the sun; but I don't really go in the sun anymore, so that is why I am so white."

"My makeup artist, Tonya Brewer, taught me the importance of moisturizing daily. Hydration is a must if you want pretty, dewy skin - which I love."

"My secret is one the world needs to know - nearly a billion people a year die from unsafe drinking water."

"Partying at a club is very different than when I'm throwing a party at my house. My party's a rage. People rage when they come to my house."

"Start going to bed earlier! It is a tough adjustment when you have had a summer of staying up late and waking up late."

"The Humane Society is so great to work with. Because everyone there is so nice and supportive, and they're all animal lovers like me."

"To me, being Latin is about more than your looks - it's how you're brought up."

"You always just have to be the best that you can be. And if you know that in your heart, then that's all that matters."

"I didn't want to do something typical."

"You can curse the dead or pray for them, but don't expect them to do a thing for you. They're far too interested in watching us, to see what in heaven's name we will do next."

"A breeze shook rain out of new leaves onto their hair, but in their pursuit of eternity they never noticed the chill."

"You can't really know the person standing before you, because always there is some missing piece"

"When I was 17, I had an experience that I later learned could be called a 'mystical experience.' It was almost violent. No faces, voices, nothing like that. It is like the world burst and flamed into life all around me. That is not a great image, but it is as good as I will ever do."

"In 1993, 89 of the 'Fortune' top 100 companies were administering the Myers-Briggs test to their employees. The philosophy behind personality tests is that they don't want you to be in the wrong kind of job. The tests have been completely exposed as nonsense."

"I have a Ph.D. in cell biology. And that's really manual labor. I mean, experimental science, you do it with your hands. So it's very different. You're out there in a lab, cleaning test tubes, and it just wasn't that fascinating."

"It was a real surprise to me to come across the evidence that Christianity might once have been a danced religion. Certainly, some of the early church leaders thought this was great and spoke of what seems to have been circle dancing, perhaps around an altar."

"The universe does not reveal itself to undergraduates or fools: This is the entire premise of higher education."

"You can't go around telling people, 'I'm on a mission to discover the purpose of life.' Not if you're hoping to prolong the conversation."