“I can seriously spend five hours making one dinner.”

I think people couldn’t really put me in [one race]. I wasn’t Mexican, I wasn’t white, I wasn’t black, I wasn’t Asian… I wasn’t anything, and I didn’t really fit into anybody’s group. My dad is Mexican, and my mom is French and Danish.

Some [actors] are really a pain in the ass today. I held out on getting an assistant forever because I didn’t want to seem demanding… or like a pain in the ass. I didn’t want someone working for me to hate me.

I’ve been getting my makeup done professionally since I was 12, I’ve never found a brand that could create that glowing look and flawless finish we all want from beauty products with ingredients that were effective and safe. So I had to create it.

I’ve got cousins galore, Mexicans just spread all their seeds and the women just pop them out.

Good actors never use the script unless it’s amazing writing. All the good actors I’ve worked with, they all say whatever they want to say.

I love acting because it’s this space where dreams can be realized, fantasy comes to life, and there are no limitations on what’s possible.

I didn’t really [seriously] go out with any guys until I was 18 and met my ex-fiancé, Michael Weatherly.

I’m comfortable looking sexy. I don’t push it with poses, although I like the ironic part of it. That’s what makes it fun.

A parent knows better than any book or “expert” what their kid really needs.

I had severe asthma and kidney problems and would get 105-degree fevers. I actually almost had to go on dialysis for my kidneys. I was also in the hospital for pneumonia.

I get self-conscious, but you have to just embrace it and go with it.

I can’t tell you how great it is to get away with a girlfriend for four days shopping in Paris. Now that’s what I call a vacation.

I wish I could speak Spanish, because it would be a lot easier to play more interesting roles.

My approach to acting now is so different — I’m fearless because I have nothing to lose. Before [children] my identity was wrapped up in every decision — now, I don’t care.

Success takes communication, collaboration and, sometimes, failure.

When I was young, I loved black men.

A man’s reading program should be as carefully planned as his daily diet, for that too is food, without which he cannot grow mentally.

And chicken is boring. Chefs see it as a menu item for people who don’t know what they want to eat.

Good food and good eating are about risk.

Our movements through time and space seem somehow trivial compared to a heap of boiled meat in broth, the smell of saffron, garlic, fishbone, and Pernod.

Don’t touch my dick, don’t touch my knife.

You have to be a romantic to invest yourself, your money, and your time in cheese.

Food had power. It could inspire, astonish, shock, excite, delight and impress. It had the power to please me .

People confuse me. Food doesn’t.