I wouldn't change my past for anything, because I think it's made me who I am. I'm so enormously grateful for all that I have in my life.

The truth is, after Boys Don't Cry, I realized how few and far between the great roles are. I am beyond thankful for finding Million Dollar Baby.

This is my one and only life and it's a great and terrible and short and endless thing and none of us come out of it alive.

I grew up in a trailer park in Bellingham, Washington.

My biggest growth has been sitting with things that are uncomfortable and dealing with them.

I had teachers who I could tell didn't want to be there. And I just couldn't get inspired by someone who didn't want to be there.

I don't think people should have boundaries put on them, by themselves or society or another gender, because it's our birthright to experience life in whatever way we feel best suits us.

You can change your fate. You can sit back, or you can go after your life and all that you want it to be.

You only have one life and if you're not doing what you love, what's the point?

Few people know this about me, but I love baking pies.

There's no negatives. You just have to trust that what's happening in your life is unfolding in exactly the right way.

a spiritual life without prayer is like the gospel without Christ.

When you get abandoned by someone, that's the moment when you've truly lost faith in them.

This feeling of being in proximity to something that’s lost to you, it seems like my whole life right now.

If you are a small company taking on a big company, you need to have a sense of humor.

somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond any experience, your eyes have their silence; in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, or which i cannot touch because they are too near

There is no group or type of people anywhere in the world that is excluded from salvation, because God desires that the gospel be proclaimed to all without exception.

There is a world of difference between being friendly to someone because they're useful to you and being someone's friend.

I've got a couple of full-time jobs, since I'm raising a kid, so it's a lot.

When I'm writing, I write. And then it's as if the muse is convinced that I'm serious and says, 'Okay. Okay. I'll come.'

Just because someone's a member of an ethnic minority doesn't mean they're not a nasty small-minded little jerk [...]