To go from Girl, Interrupted, where I had to cry every day, to a TV show like West Wing where I get to laugh and joke around every day, has been a welcome relief.

I think my guideline has been to find things that inspire me. And as long as I stick to that, I don't think I'll have any problems crossing over to becoming an adult actress.

There's nothing like getting yourself into character and seeing a different person. It really wears on your vanity.

Art often reflects what's going on in the world, and we're seeing stories that are very diverse and that are lead and made by women because that's what's in our world.

I think one of my biggest influences is Bette Davis. I've seen almost every one of her films, and she's been very inspiring to me.

Be such that people get to know of you as you are rather than comparing to others.

Every reader wants the same thing: to open the cover of a book and watch the words explode like fireworks off the page.

He that won't be counseled can't be helped.

The real problem is not increasing your energy. The problem is losing it. If you stop the loss and you simply meditate, you will have more than enough energy. You will learn to live strategically.

How could homosexuals possibly srew up the sanctity of marriage any worse than heterosexuals?

The fact that the Church is convinced of not having the right to confer priestly ordination on women, is now considered by some as irreconcilable with the European Constitution.

The language of politics is poetry, not prose. Jackson is poetry. Cuomo is poetry. Dukakis is a word processor.

The more I swear I'm happy the more I'm feeling alone

To be a man's own fool is bad enough, but the vain man is everybody's.