Actress

The name game is frustrating. Agents will say, They love you, but they're going to offer it to Julia Roberts first.

Once you've found something you know how to do, it makes you feel you don't have to be intimidated by someone.

I try to become more humble and more myself with every year. There was a while when I got famous where I was so confused and my head was spinning.

Acting is doing, because everything you say or do is some kind of an action, some kind of a verb. You're always connected to the other person through some kind of action.

I had a Christian upbringing - it was all about sin and guilt. I was very happy just kissing people. I was like the make-out queen - not even second base.

I have a pretty big range of interests. I love art; I love going to the museums. I dabble in painting, and although I'm not very good at it, I enjoy it.

We want to take our activism and our power into action and change things for every woman, everywhere, working in any workplace.

I love music; I love dancing. I took, like, eight years of ballet when I was a kid, and I still love dancing. There's been a couple of films where I was able to do some dance numbers, like 'Romy and Michelle' and 'Summer of Sam,' and I'm so happy when I get to do that.

I always do that for all of my characters. I built a music playlist for her... with songs she really likes.

I want my life to effect the balance to the positive.

I'll talk to myself out loud a lot.

I have great respect for Harvey as an artist, and owe him and his brother a debt of gratitude for the early success in my career, including the Oscar.

When I was 5, my mother threw a party, and a friend and I wrote and performed a play called The Dutch Doll.

Being is like pretending.

The cognitive dissonance, the denial and cowardice that spare us painful truths and prevent us from acting in defense of innocent victims while allowing 'beloved' individuals to continue their heinous behavior must be jettisoned from the bottom of our souls.

I've definitely taken more family-friendly roles. Honestly, sometimes the edgier acting roles are not age-appropriate for kids but I have taken more projects that I feel have a great message or my kids can watch because of their age and that were just plain fun.

It's the relationships between people that are more important than the sort of far away fantasies of what the good life is, the world of supermodels and Bud ads.

I had started off, before I ever got an acting job, working at Robert De Niro's Tribeca Productions as a reader. I was always interested in that side of the camera.

I try not to judge my characters. If I'm looking at it from the outside, I'd say, 'No, she's not really a great mother.' But she wishes she were, and she wants to be, and she still has instincts toward protecting her son and wanting him to be a happy person.

Being a good mother is really so hard and so important, and it's this thing that all people long for. Think of all the soldiers who cry out for their mothers on the battlefield as they die. It's a primal relationship.