My job as an actress is to make things work and come up with reasons of my own and not just fill in the blanks for anybody else, you know what I mean?

I like Cinderella, I really do. She has a good work ethic. I appreciate a good, hard-working gal. And she likes shoes. The fairy tale is all about the shoe at the end, and I'm a big shoe girl.

I come from musical theater, and a lot of musical theater is about accepting fantasy. I think it is more about just being open and accepting.

Find out who you are & embrace it. It's so much easier to face criticism when you are comfortable in your own skin.

That's always been my philosophy: I try to just be as straightforward as possible, and then I don't really have to question what I said or regret anything.

I do believe that you don't have to act like a man to be strong. You can still be feminine.

The illusion of perfection is an illusion anyway.

I find that in life all you can do is try to be honest about who you are and how you're feeling, and trust that it will be received in the correct way.

As an actress people always tease me like: if there's anything you can do to make yourself unattractive you will do it.

A man who's powerful and strong yet is able to show tenderness and vulnerability, that's really sexy.

I was a pretty scrappy, tough kid; I got in all sorts of fights at school. I defended myself - boys didn't mess with me. But as one of seven children, you have to fight for everything anyway.

I have had national security background, 10 years on the Intelligence Committee, the last two years as chair.

I'm not an Uncle Tom. . .. I'm going to be here for 40 years. For those who don't like it, get over it.

Even the best computer in the world has no idea that it exists. You do. No one knows what creates that ineffable awareness that we're here.

Drink to me! I just realized that I've slept with everyone at this table! ~Nell

Metaphor is the energy charge that leaps between images, revealing their connections.

My coach has said to me, "When you win a match or a tournament, you don't even think about it - the very next minute you're like".

I'm for the Wall Street Occupiers. But will they accept me when they find out I sell packaged mortgage default instruments to children?

I truly believe that when a person makes a concrete decision and takes action towards a goal they've set, that the universe will step in and provide opportunities.

Because I have so much life on my pitches, I can get away with getting too much of the plate every now and then.

Literature is invention. Fiction is fiction. To call a story a true story is an insult to both art and truth.