My kids have never seen me scream at anybody. They've never seen an argument. There's never been even a cold silence. And those are things that I grew up with because my parents did end up divorcing.

Obviously, it wasn't meant for me to die of cancer at 40. Every day my life surprises me, just like my cancer diagnosis surprised me. But you roll with it. That's our job as humans.

The common misconception is that as an actress you have to learn what you're doing. No, you just have to make the audience think you've learned it.

I'm an old-school, embarrassing Joni Mitchell fan. Her music made a hook in my soul and hasn't let go for all these years. I even sing her songs as lullabies to my kids.

I don't have examples in my life of people who are all good or bad; I have deeply loved many people who are both, and I relate to those kinds of people on a far greater level.

But I've always been hard to cast, I've never been an ingenue, I've never been the romantic lead. I'm an actor; give me the script and I do what I do and hope it's good.

I was a young kid from Long Island who wanted to do something large with her life, so I can relate to that.

I've never been all that interested or aware of what people are thinking about me or saying about me. I think that has kept me safest and sanest.

One of the ways I think I gain fodder for characters is by watching people.

I sort of love reading the scripts and going, 'Oh wow, what a great idea. I never would have thought of that.

All I ever wanted to do was act. And pay my bills

With certainty, courage and commitment, the dream will be a reality.

The best diet is the one you don't know you're on.

Oppressed people are frequendy very oppressive when first liberated. And why wouldn't they be? They know best two positions. Somebody's foot on their neck or their foot on somebody's neck.

The diesel engine industry has illegally poured millions of tons of pollution into the air, .. It's time for the industry to clean up its act, and it's time for it to clean up the air.

It is evident that not all people that have the confidence of the prime minister are the same ones that have the confidence of the head of state.

I'm an artist at heart.

The only way you're going to be successful is if you admit what you don't know and you ask for help.

What a person wills and not what they know determines their worth or unworth, power or impotence, happiness or unhappiness.

There is wealth within the sound of your voice.

My first words, as I was being born [...] I looked up at my mother and said, 'that's the last time I'm going up one of those.