Then I did Mystic Pizza, just to do something I wasn't fat in.

Unless you look like Brad Pitt, it's really hard to have full control of your character.

Im a character actor, and I made a choice when I was young, after Mystic Pizza, not to go for the mainstream stuff, and to do a more eclectic kind of route.

It's like why people read scary books or go see scary movies. Because it creates a distance. They're scared, but they're not going to get hurt.

This haunting idea of becoming a celebrity doesn't settle well with me at all.

When I was younger I used to pick things just to face the fear.

It's pretty simple, pretty obvious: that people's first impressions of people are really a big mistake.

If you try to go beyond your interests just for the sake of pretensions or wealth, your art becomes less legitimate.

To me the definition of true masculinity - and femininity, too - is being able to lay in your own skin comfortably.

The key is always to speak in your own voice. Speak the truth. That's Acting 101.

I found my niche as a character actor, and I've never felt like a movie star or teen idol and never wanted to.

As women, we'd be exponentially lighter if we'd sort through some of our emotional clutter... We need to dispose of the crud that we no longer need. Excerpt from essay #3 "What's in my Purse?

I can't wait to make you the love of my mortal life.

Your mind will enchain you. Your heart will set you free

You can kill a lot of time if you really want to put your mind to it Or leave it all behind and never really have to go through it

Even Charles Darwin, that human decoder ring of bizarre behavior, found the idea of saving a stranger's life to be a total head-scratcher.

Every night I bring home flowers and burn candles. And I have a real sense that home is what starts everything inside of you.

A long headline that really says something is more effective than a brief heading that says nothing.

If nobody comes to your shows, then it's modern dance. If everybody comes to your shows and no one likes it, is that ballet? I don't know.

An executive should be a realist; and no one is less realistic than the cynic.

Female authors were still using male names when I was young, or they were neatly shoehorned into womens books except for those few that men could always point at when the disparity was pointed out.