On being Miss America: "I've put it all behind me. It was a year of my life. But it wasn't the dream of my life to be Miss America. Broadway was always my dream."

On posing nude: "It was very stupid. I was trying to be independent. I never told anyone about the pictures, not even my parents."

On raising her children: "I try to apply the same theories and practices with my children that my parents did. Which is tough. It's an entirely different situation. Let's face it - my life is hardly consistent."

On landing the starring role in "Kiss of the Spider Woman: "Sometimes the unexpected things turn out to be the sweetest."

"I learned to trust my gut and my own instincts. Posing for those pictures bothered me, but I wasn't strong enough or assertive enough then to say what I really felt. That's not just a life lesson, that's a woman's lesson: learning that you don't have to please everyone."

"There's not a lot of people who can do the same things that I do because of my training, my background, and who I am, you know? I danced all my life, I can carry a Broadway show, I have a Broadway future. I can also put out an album and be successful at it and go out on the road."

"You can call that being arrogant or cocky, but I knew I'd get a shot. And the more shots I got, the more people said, 'Oh, I didn't know she could do that.' At first, you get defensive and say, 'Of course I can do that. There's so much more to me than what's been in the paper."