The ordinary is ultimately what moves us most deeply. It's what touches us, and it's what we most recognize, in great moments of art.

When stepping into the mind of a psychopath, you realize that there is something missing in their brain that they do not understand the consequences of their actions- in a sense.

We all have a dark side. Most of us go through life avoiding direct confrontation with that aspect of ourselves, which I call the shadow self. Theres a reason why. It carries a great deal of energy.

The light and the dark are the same. They share. They really do rub up against each other, and they are extraordinarily familiar with each other. They are actually friends.

So many young people feel powerless. We live in a world where it feels like it's so big and yet so small, and that your contribution really doesn't matter.

As an actor, I usually have to find something to love about my character in order to play her.

Being a mom myself and it being a huge and important part of who I am, made it easier for me to play the role of a strong, fierce, giving mom...

It is the ordinariness of us that is the same in all of us.

You can't play history and you can't play historical characters. You just have to reduce it to the ordinary.

I am so proud of Amelia Boynton. I can burst with pride.

Pretend and real are all real to a psychopath.

You destruct the attention the world gives you when you mistrust your own ability

Some choices are awful even when they're the right ones.

Every time, he breaks your hearts. And every time, he expects me to pick up the pieces.

There was no experience, I thought, quite as wonderful as being an American in Paris.

The individualization of learning fundamentally redefines the role of assessment.

Newton did not know what happened to the apple, and I can prove this when the next eclipse comes.

...Mama used to say that when you don't know what to do, do nothing. She meant you can try too hard to solve a problem. If you give it a little time, the answer might just come to you plain as day.

As for earthquakes, though they were still formidable, they were so interesting that men of science could hardly regret them.

One thing Barack Obama is: He's a good campaigner. He's a terrible president.

When I was growing up, I always knew I'd be in the top of my class in math, and that gave me a lot of self-confidence.