Well I always wanted to be Dolly Parton when I was a little girl. I was obsessed with her.

I take the kids to church and Sunday school. They love it. I really think it's important for a child to feel that there are things that are bigger than your life out there.

My sheets are monogrammed, so is my silverware and pretty much everything else I own. My rule is, if it's not moving -- monogram it!

We’re more than just our dresses.

It's funny that it all becomes about clothes. It's bizarre. You work your butt off and then you win an award and it's all about your dress. You can't get away from it.

I love to cook comfort food. I'll make fish and vegetables or meat and vegetables and potatoes or rice. The ritual of it is fun for me, and the creativity of it.

Confidence is everything in this business.

As an artist, I feel more strongly than ever that my job on earth is to tell the stories of the invisibles, and women have been invisible on film for a long time.

My rule is, if it's not moving-monogram it!

If you're not yelling at your kids, you're not spending enough time with them.

Every day you have to choose and cultivate your own happiness.

Take principles, not just religion, to people

There is a time to take counsel of your fears and there is a time to never listen to any fear.

I have a vanilla chai latte every morning, which I usually follow with an oatmeal raisin cookie and eggs for breakfast.

Nobody phrases it this way, but I think that artificial intelligence is almost a humanities discipline. It's really an attempt to understand human intelligence and human cognition.

Even though some of the films I've made haven't been particularly commercial, I don't find them failures.

Education is the key to opportunity. It's a ticket out of poverty.

If reality impacted directly on our senses and our consciousness, if we could have direct communication between the material world and ourselves, art would be unnecessary.

What I've said repeatedly is, 'I think the auto industry is a very important industry.'

Who but an English professor would threaten to kill a duck a day and hold up a goose as an example?

We can't be certain who the villains are cuz everyone's so pretty, but the after party's sure to be the wing-ding as it moves into your city.