I'm just not one of those people who thought having biological children was that important, to me it was more about wanting to raise a child.

Obviously, it wasn't meant for me to die of cancer at 40. Every day my life surprises me, just like my cancer diagnosis surprised me. But you roll with it. That's our job as humans.

The common misconception is that as an actress you have to learn what you're doing. No, you just have to make the audience think you've learned it.

I'm an old-school, embarrassing Joni Mitchell fan. Her music made a hook in my soul and hasn't let go for all these years. I even sing her songs as lullabies to my kids.

I don't have examples in my life of people who are all good or bad; I have deeply loved many people who are both, and I relate to those kinds of people on a far greater level.

But I've always been hard to cast, I've never been an ingenue, I've never been the romantic lead. I'm an actor; give me the script and I do what I do and hope it's good.

I was a young kid from Long Island who wanted to do something large with her life, so I can relate to that.

I've never been all that interested or aware of what people are thinking about me or saying about me. I think that has kept me safest and sanest.

One of the ways I think I gain fodder for characters is by watching people.

I sort of love reading the scripts and going, 'Oh wow, what a great idea. I never would have thought of that.

All I ever wanted to do was act. And pay my bills

She was reflecting back on a truth she had learned over the years: that people heard what they wanted to hear, saw what they wanted, believed what they wanted.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

When we reflect on the shortness and uncertainty of life, how despicable seem all our pursuits of happiness.

My pictures really finish themselves.

The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries.

All knowledge is self-reflective.

He that uses many words for explaining any subject, doth, like the cuttlefish, hide himself for the most part in his own ink.

If you can stay back, you can wait an extra split-second longer, and then you become more relaxed, and that's when you gain confidence.

Anyone can be confident with a full head of hair. But a confident bald man - there's your diamond in the rough.

Everything you do is by choice. It may not seem so, but it is.