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.

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 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 big part of being an actress specifically is feeling entitled to your artistic opinion, feeling that it means something, and being able to stand by it.

Love that causes you pain is better than hate that brings you pleasure.

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.

We stole their babes and mothers, chiefs and braves Although we held the whip, you knew we were The real slaves To alchemy, human alchemy.

Just be truthful - and if you can fake that, you've got it made.

You say how you feel, and songs don't lie. Songs are the most honest form of human expression there is--there's nothing that lies about a song.

A man can't hit a woman and stay a man. He becomes a loathsome thing, even to himself. But the woman who stays with such a man panders to his darkness. They both risk their souls.

That's the horrible thing starting out, you get distracted a lot because anything is easier than writing. It's just the same enemy - blank paper.

Nobody likes to hear a f**king rock star talk about his problems

She had looked her duty courageously in the face and found it a friend - as duty ever is when we meet it frankly.

If a dad does his job, we don't need prisons, we don't need jails. That's what I saw growing up.