To work with a director that has emotional commitment and passion toward the characters, and the piece, and the experiences, it only enriches your work.

I never felt like I belonged in Minnesota when I was growing up there. That's why I was out the door as soon as I turned 18.

The natural state of motherhood is unselfishness. When you become a mother, you are no longer the center of your own universe. You relinquish that position to your children.

When you learn not to want things so badly, life comes to you.

I regret those times when I've chosen the dark side. I've wasted enough time not being happy.

Moments of pure happiness...come upon you unexpectedly. Don't be too preoccupied to experience them.

Everything is transient. Everything is constantly changing. The only thing we have is now.

One of the things I love about acting is that it reveals a certain something about yourself, but it doesn't reveal your own personal story.

Don't be absent from your own life.

I've never been a sunny personality. I've never been outgoing. I'm a solitary person.

Acceptance and tolerance and forgiveness, those are life-altering lessons.

If they had learned anything together, it was that wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good.

The body's ills are the least of ills, for they end only in death, which is but a little thing. But if the spirit dies, then all is lost.

There is enough work for everyone.

You have to be interested in inequality. The issue of inequality and that of poverty are not separable.

Yeah, I have the detail-obsessed, controlling personality of a novelist, but I somehow ended up writing plays.

I'd learned something... Food had power. It could inspire, astonish, shock, excite, delight and impress. It had the power to please me... and others. This was valuable information.

Boom, crush. Night, losers. Winning, duh.

I just write what I want to read, and sometimes keeping it interesting means adding one more element that ends up adding another year to the work.

Death holds no allure for me, Elena.” The power of him cut against his skin, a cold white fire. “Not when I have yet to sate my hunger for you.

I've had a lot of success over the years racing in New York, but the main point is that I feel the marathon is a different event, a lot more my event.