Chandra Wilson

“My mom said I was not going to be an idle child, so I had things to do every day after school.”

“I've watched 'General Hospital' for 35 years. I grew up with it. It holds such a place in my heart.”

“My first show was 'The King and I' when I was five.”

“I started in musical theater as a little girl in Houston.”

“I made the decision to go on to college and major in drama and see where it would take me.”

“I'm a big cook and prefer to make meals at home when I can. I'm either cooking, or we're going to a drive-through somewhere. I'm really proud of my homemade sweet potato pie. At Thanksgiving I make five of them because they go quick.”

“Shonda and 'Grey's' have given me the opportunity to become a director, and that's something that I hadn't really envisioned for myself, other than directing for theater. Now I've got this resume of television credits that I can carry forward into the next opportunity.”

“I don't have to be a star - I don't have to be famous.”

“It's very difficult to advocate for yourself while you're in excruciating pain.”

“When you are the parent of someone who is a chronic pain sufferer, you end up creating these binders for all of the hospital stays so you can keep track of every visit and any new thing that comes out.”

“When someone new takes over a role, the company doesn't change anything from the script, but they do lay it all out there and let people take from it what they take from it.”

“Patrick Dempsey will forever be known as 'Grey's Anatomy''s McDreamy.”

“When the time came for me to go to college, there was only one scholarship that my high school offered at the time and I didn't win that one, but that didn't stop me. I went on to college anyway. I worked my way through it and paid my student loans for 11 years.”

“I was an only child for 16 years. I didn't realize it at the time, but that experience definitely turned me into a people pleaser. I always tried to do what was expected of me, and I constantly sought reassurance from the adults around me that I was doing a good job.”

“This is the weirdest industry. When you have a job, you can't fall into the pitfalls of thinking you're secure. If it's not a firing, it's a strike.”

“While I was at NYU, I did a play at The Public called 'The Forbidden City,' where I went in as an understudy and got my Equity card.”

“Before 'Grey's Anatomy,' I was doing musicals, plays, commercials, you name it.”