“I’d started going to acting classes at 14, played ‘Medea’ at 15 and really wanted to be a classical actress.”

I want the best product for my audience, and if I don’t care 100%, who will? It’s my name, my likeness that goes out there.

What reaches an audience is honesty. If you’re saying something truthful that’s supposed to be a funny line, it’s going to be funny. And if it’s supposed to be a serious line, it’s going to be serious. But, I don’t think there’s a distinction between how you play drama or comedy, if it’s based in the truth.

I can’t stand to see red in my profit-or-loss column. I’m Taurus the bull, so I react to red. If I see it, I sell my stocks quickly.

Most awards, you know, they don’t give you unless you go and get them – did you know that? Terribly discouraging.

I don’t think I’m tough in a so called tough way. I’m tough on myself.

I think of myself as a girl from Brooklyn.

I started going to acting school when I was 14, and I would always have my own take on things.

It’s not a date. We’re just agreeing to eat at the same table.

I’m a terrible lip-syncer anyway because I have to be in the moment, and I can’t lip-sync to something I recorded three months before.

When I was a teenager in New York, I was buying antique clothes. I still am.

I was a personality before I became a person – I am simple, complex, generous, selfish, unattractive, beautiful, lazy and driven.

How could such a destructive man [referring to Bush] be so popular with the American people?… Not only is he poisoning our air and water – he’s poisoning our political system as well.

We have a president who stole the presidency through family ties, arrogance and intimidation, employing Republican operatives to exercise the tactics of voter fraud by disenfranchising thousands of blacks, elderly Jews and other minorities.

You know, I can’t remember my good reviews. I remember negative ones. They stay in my mind.

I never liked stardom. It’s weird to me. I only like the creative process. I only like the work.

Success to me is having ten honeydew melons and eating only the top half of each slice.

How can you measure acting in inches?

I feel that one of the hardest things in acting is the way you need to switch your emotions.

My mom didn’t ever think I would take to acting because I was a very shy, very reserved kind of child. But obviously, something changed!

A successful film is a good film, and a non-successful film is a bad film. It’s as simple as that.

Well, my brother started acting before I did.

Every film for every actor is a make-or-break film. I believe every film has the power to break you or make you. So, an actor will treat every film like his last film.

I don’t come to work as an actor. There are many directors who can direct without ever having acted and do a great job and connect with their actors and lead them to excellent performances without themselves having had an acting background.

I never really wanted to write and wanted to focus on acting.