“I was raised in a really terrific, close family, and I’ve never needed to escape anything or to really let myself go by dancing on tables.”

Christmas for me is all about spending time with my family. I cherish any chance we have to spend all day together making gingerbread houses, baking cookies, or sitting around and watching movies.

After my first year on ‘Gossip Girl,’ everybody said, ‘You’ve got to do a big commercial movie, ride this wave.’

I think I became my own stylist by not knowing any better.

They point out flaws in other people to make them feel good about themselves. I think at any age or any social class, that’s present.

My whole family’s been in the business. My whole family is crazy.

Honestly, I am a shy person.

People say, ‘Well, whose career do you follow? Where do you see your career going? What movie do you want to do next?’ And I can’t tell you what type of movie I would go and do next.

I had a premonition when I was nine that I’d marry Leonardo DiCaprio.

I want babies. Lots of babies. Of course!

There’s something tangible about the essence of the city. You can taste and smell it.

I always loved fashion.

My mom would have different fragrances for different times of the year. They were a part of her identity.

The smell of pine needles, spruce and the smell of a Christmas tree – those to me, are the scents of the holidays.

My mom and dad always taught acting, so instead of getting me babysitters, they would just bring me to class.

If I define myself by things that are always changing, like the public’s opinion, or what I’m wearing, or what job I’m doing, there’s no stability in that.

I’ve always been a night owl.

When I say that I am opposed to this budget, everyone says, “Well, what do you think the United States should do?” My response is, “Why should the United States do anything?”

Life is precious. We should not take anything for granted.

To define Buddhism without a lot of words and phrases, we can simply say, ‘Don’t cling or hold on to anything. Harmonize with actuality, with things as they are.’

Whenever we feel that we are definitely right, so much so that we refuse to open up to anything or anybody else, right there we are wrong. It becomes wrong view.

The empty mind – the pure mind – is not a blank, zero-land, where you’re not feeling or caring about anything.

We do it, not with desire, but with letting go. If you want anything, you wont find it.

Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened.

We no longer demand that sensory consciousness be anything other than an existing condition that we can use skillfully according to time and place.