Miriam Shor: Travel. You need to know you're a citizen of the world.

I feel like your generation is like, "We deserve a place at this table, we have a right to be here," whereas when I was in my 20s I was like, "Who am I?" It's exciting because I do see a lot of young women feeling empowered.

Miriam Shor

generations tables feelings

I do feel like especially nowadays, we are inundated with the message that, "Oh my god, you aren't making your own clothes? You didn't make your own bread? And you also don't have a career and you don't look unbelievable and you have 5 pounds on your frame? Where is your book that you haven't published yet?"

Miriam Shor

clothes careers book

I think about that with kids - you want to do everything for them, but you realize if you do everything and you make it easy on them, they won't learn anything and then they will walk around life needing their mamas all the time, and that isn't attractive.

Miriam Shor

want kids thinking

You can't just wait for everybody to give you approval - you will just be waiting.

Miriam Shor

approval waiting giving

If it's truly a passion and it's truly something you believe in, then you need to do it.

Miriam Shor

passion believe needs

So many people are paralyzed by worrying, "What are these people going to think?"

Miriam Shor

worry people thinking

I do feel like once you know you are someone who is in the world and there are other countries and cultures, that stays with you and your decision-making forever.

Miriam Shor

decision forever country

I don't think it's a sad thing for a woman to not be in a relationship if she doesn't want to be. I feel like nobody looks at men who aren't in relationships and like, I don't know. It seems to be something looking at women like oh that's sad. But you have to look at what they want out of their lives.

Miriam Shor

look-at-me men thinking

You can't live with letting your feelings guide you, you'll get smooshed.

Miriam Shor

feelings

I was just shitty, shitty, shitty with money and I finally, when I really started making money, I had to get somebody to sit down with me and learn how to manage my money.

Miriam Shor

manage making-money

Eating good food is, to me, one of life's greatest joys, and I will never punish myself for it.

Miriam Shor

good myself me life

I'm fine being addicted to chocolate and French fries.

Miriam Shor

being french-fries fine chocolate

My sister gave my two-and-a-half year old this book called 'And Tango Makes Three,' about the gay penguin couple at the Central Park Zoo. They cared for an orphan egg 'til it hatched and then raised the baby penguin as their own. I cannot get through this book without copious amounts of tears and snot running down my face.

Miriam Shor

face sister gay tears

What I love about Encores! is that it's a tremendous amount of work in a short amount of time, but it's just so festive and so celebratory and fun. It harkens back to the old days of just getting together and putting on a show.

Miriam Shor

together work time love

As the director, it's just a constant stream of meetings where you meet with all of the creatives who make all of the decisions for every part of the episodes. You're also scouting for locations, deciding on the locations, meeting with your first associate director; mine was Jennifer Truelove. She's one of my favorite people on the planet.

Miriam Shor

meeting you meetings people

My very first show that I ever did was a show called 'Then Came You'. It became a huge hit - no, it didn't. But it was a sitcom with some great people involved, and the story was about an older woman and a younger guy. I was the older woman's best friend. I was 27 years old.

Miriam Shor

woman best you people

If I could go into a time machine and be in my 20s again and do 'Flora the Red Menace,' I would. That was always the one. I mean, have they done that? I don't think so. No one's done that show. That was sort of a dream role of mine.

Miriam Shor

think red dream time

I think that, as women, we're often asked to apologize for our own power, or we're asked to undercut ourselves, and it's deemed unattractive to have faith in our abilities.

Miriam Shor

think women power faith

We are in love with youth culture in this country... It permeates every aspect of people's lives.

Miriam Shor

youth love culture people

I feel like a lot of women have been questioning their role in their workplaces and society, opportunities that they may have missed or haven't spoken up for.

Miriam Shor

feel like women society