Joan Cusack

Joan: Parents have a lot of anxiety letting go of their kids. They think that if they can get them into the best [college] they could possibly ever go, that will secure their life, and they wouldn't have to worry about anything, which is really not real. It's destructive to your children to have them feel like if they're not the very best, then they don't mean anything. An Ivy League school doesn't guarantee that you're going to have a meaningful life. It's sad.

Joan: I remember my dad, who was awesome, saying to me, "If you really want to act your whole life, you should go to college first." He said I should learn about all the other wonderful things in the world and have great professors. He was a great lover of 18th century poetry, for some reason. Who knows why. But he really appreciated college, and he wanted his kids to have that experience.

Joan: I was brought up with humor. It's an important skill as a way of looking at the world. I value humor, but I never feel like I'm funny or that I'm a jokester. I don't think about entertaining -- that's another skill. It doesn't come naturally to me.