My mother's passion for something more, to write a different destiny for a dirt-poor farmer's daughter, was to shape my entire life.

I'm still the little southern girl from the wrong side of the tracks who really didn't feel like she belonged.

Fear is a pair of handcuffs on your soul.

You just sort of let them go for a while, but it was time to have something done to my teeth. I'm glad. It's going to be good. Tom Cruise has braces now, too. I'm right in style.

You are not an extra in somebody else's film. You are the star in your own life.

I am desperate and vulnerable. ... I am always terrified.... Beauty can sometimes be so very troublesome.

Success is a relative quotient, and fame can be ephemeral. An Oscar is something that becomes a part of your record, a tangible acknowledgement that your efforts have made a difference.

You can't take responsibility for everything. You can't have that kind of control. At some point, it's all out of our hands.

So many people are called but few serve as actors, you know what I mean?

I often say the last role I played that really touched me and where I was able to access what I really am was Bonnie, which is kind of sad when you think how early in my career that was.

Years are not important, my dear.

You can, you will. You did.

Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise. The gift of language combined with the gift of song was given to man that he should proclaim the Word of God through Music.

The ground had opened up and spit out hell, Nell thought, and the detritus was Shiloh.

lawyers never go to law, do they? They know better.

I inherited depression from my mother's side of the family.

If you don't have dreams, you will end up working for people who do.

We have to believe in ourselves more. It's all the same thing: We need to release the guilt. We need to forgive. We need to drop all the bullshit we were taught.

Love is not a plant of slow growth.

I don't know how well this would get on, but I'd probably live in Africa...as a job, it would probably be a safari guide.

Governments have a legitimate concern with slowing population growth. But often this has been attempted with little concern for the individuals most affected.