The way I see it, any attention I get, for whatever reason, just draws more eyes to the causes that I believe in.
I feel that it's my duty to persuade more people to take part in relevant causes.
I don't think you should necessarily listen to a celebrity just because he is one. But if you can marshal your celebrity and really steep yourself in whatever issue you're trying to promote, it can actually move the ball forward, and we've done that.
I would be an activist but never a politician. As an activist, nobody owns you.
I'm not famous, which generally is an absolute plus point, but if you're on TV, or someone knows who you are, it can be quite helpful to a certain charity or certain cause.
For me it's more important to look at each constituency individually and find a community I feel I can serve to the best of my abilities, and where I feel I can make a real difference, and further their cause.
I would be delighted not to see another celebrity, regardless of their political beliefs, come to Washington to make yet another appeal for some cause about which they know little.
Because I take very seriously the idea that I can make an impact in the world, I hold back my voice so I can make more of an impact when I do use it. A cause like One Billion Rising is something I want to scream about, and I want you to take that scream seriously because I don't fall out of nightclubs. I don't have photographers capture me spending untold amounts on a handbag.
Celebrities like to pay lip service to causes but rarely do so by putting their lives in peril. And even more rarely do they do so in the name of the United States of America, not on their own behalf.
Twitter's a great way to tell people across the world what I care about and, hopefully, motivate them to join me in furthering my causes. It's also a fantastic medium to hear the ideas and opinions of people I might not otherwise get to meet.
Being constantly in the public eye gives me a special responsibility, particularly that of using the impact of photographs to transmit a message, to sensitize the word to an important cause, to defend certain values.
Nobody wants his cause near as bad as he wants to talk about his cause.
A book is not an end in itself; it is only a way to touch someone - a bridge extended across a space of loneliness and obscurity - and sometimes it is a way of winning other people to our causes.
