I wanted to be a political science professor and go to school in Boston. I never wanted to be a big, famous movie star and TV star. It kind of found me.

My mother would take groups of students to different countries and always brought us along, so by the time I was 10, I had been to Russia, China, Nicaragua and several other countries.

My parents divorced when I was born, and my mother is a political science professor, like a feminist Mormon, which is sort of an oxymoron.

I remember hitting Sarah Michelle Gellar with a right hook during my first week on the job. It was awful. They usually pair actors with stunt doubles to avoid things like that.

Go big or go home. Because it's true. What do you have to lose?

There is definitely something sexy about a girl with an attitude and a pair of leather pants.

Sometimes it feels like you're losing, but even when you're losing, you're getting something.

I don't let guys do hickeys. That's like a dog marking his territory or something.

When you get to your mid-20s, you start to feel responsibilities for the things that you do and the people around you. It's a cool age.

It's still a pretty sexist world out there and someone's got to stand up and say something.

Rhymes with push-koo; I always say it sounds like a breakfast cereal.

She knew exactly how she ought to feel, for she was well read in our greater and lesser English poets, but the unfortunate fact was that she did not really like being kissed at all.

One day I'm going to write a book about osprey. It has really gotten deep into my bloodstream. So when you ask what else I do, I feel like this is part of what I do....is to watch these birds.

How can you call it a sacrifice when you choose to do something because you believe in it?

I've been boxing ever since I was 16. I love surprising people who think a short, blond girl can't fight! Just because I look a certain way doesn't mean I'm weak.

Only love makes fruitful the soul.

No story sits by itself, Sometimes stories meet at corners and sometimes they cover one another completely, like stones beneath a river.

Anything that I'm doing I'm writing specifically for a particular project.

I just try to win the match by fighting for every point, and running down every ball.

How shall the heart be reconciled / To its feast of losses?

I write only because There is a voice within me That will not be still