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.

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.

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

I actually washed my window once, and it fell through - it was being held together by the dirt.

If you don’t understand the concept of time or appreciate its value, it’s almost impossible to be successful.

From that day on it was as if Ren freed me from gravity. I was floating in the sky. Higher. Higher. Higher.

I wasn't actually very naturally good at economics. My brain doesn't work very well, in terms of mathematics.

No, as it turns out, I really like being congratulated on my weight loss. I like it so much, it's tragic.

In Hollywood, I'm lucky, I only do big movies like 'Blade.' It's much more comfortable: you have a trailer.

A little superstition is a good thing to keep in one's bag of precautions.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, everybody knows this!

At Harvard I was in charge of the comparative anatomy labs.

You have to first experience what you want to express

Love has features which pierce all hearts, he wears a bandage which conceals the faults of those beloved. He has wings, he comes quickly and flies away the same.