I don't see that many movies lately that are actually about something, that are trying to challenge something about the way that people interact.

What I think is new is the wealth of roles for actual women in television and in film. That's what I think is revolutionary and evolutionary.

Having an education is invaluable.

I want roles that challenge people to question where they are in life.

Honestly, I'm always aware of the political implications of the movies that I make.

I have a couple of girlfriends who are like healing. We take care of each other. They know when I need to be taken care of.

I find myself more and more interested only in roles which move the world forward.

Being a mother has absolutely forced me. You have to write things down and have systems for all of it. And then you set up systems and you realize they don't work.

To get people emotionally involved in something intellectual and political is important.

A lot of actresses are doing incredible work right now, playing real women, complicated women. I don't feel despairing at all. And I'm more looking with hope for something fascinating.

I'm 37 and I was told recently I was too old to play the lover of a man who was 55. It was astonishing to me. It made me feel bad, and then it made me feel angry, and then it made me laugh.

A great purpose with great commitment can definitely create a great life with great value

Hate is like acid. It can damage the vessel in which it is stored as well as destroy the object on which it is poured.

I know that, like every woman of the people, I have more strength than I appear to have.

A critic is a eunuch working in a harem. He watches it, but he knows he can't do it. Critics very often are failed writers and, like failed priests, they hate religion.

Make space in your life for the inevitable arrival of what you want.

I am a child who is getting on.

Somehow, we have to get older people back close to growing children if we are to restore a sense of community, acquire knowledge of the past, and provide a sense of the future.

But it's fun to be something, have that, and you don't have to be real. It's like, comedians. They go on and they're doing all these jokes. I would be like that if I were more awake

The childhood scenes [ in The Tree of Life] are tremendous. My favorite moment is when the mother levitate - for three seconds. Of course, this is how a child thinks of his mother.

There's so many wonderful gospel people out there, and I don't necessarily want to compete with those people.