“I was a tomboy and I didn’t have a bunch of brothers but I always wanted them and so I sort of adopted a few of my great friends to be my brother.”

I am a big music nerd.

I’m proud to have played characters who’ve inspired people to live out loud, and I’m lucky to have reached an audience that’s been incredibly enthusiastic and supportive.

I think what ruins relationships and causes most fights is insecurity.

I consider my education to be the first 10 years of my career.

People assume actresses are afraid to get older; the truth is the roles get a whole lot more compelling once you’re too old to play dumb.

When you choose to be an actor, you are going against the odds.

If I’m left high and dry at the end of this wild journey, just taking it is a great feeling.

My dad is Irish. I spent my childhood going back and forth between Ireland and America.

I used to experiment all the time with my hair color.

When I kiss a girl for a part, people think it’s sexy. But if two guys kiss, suddenly there’s a backlash. It’s a double standard.

When I first did theatre, I was always doing comedies; it was always my first love. But it wasn’t what I was picked for at first, for films and TV.

Only the really young are fearless, have the optimism, the romanticism to take unimaginable risks.

Believe it or not, I’m a big fan of patchouli oil. I know it’s not a universally liked fragrance. I usually combine it with other essential oils – I have many mixtures I like.

I’ve always been a fan of science fiction. My family, we all used to watch ‘Star Trek’ together, which is kind of a nerdy family activity.

As you get older, you start to really ask questions like, ‘Is this the road I should be walking down?,’ because every decision seems more final, as you get older.

I feel like the luckiest child in the world because I got to grow up in Ireland. In summer is when you really grow up. During the year, I would go back to the States, and all year long really couldn’t wait to get back to Ardmore.

I’m a New Yorker. I always have issues with trust – you adopt it from being a New Yorker.

Amnesty International adopted me as a prisoner of conscience, and that led to my – it touched me in a way that really led to me opening up my heart, I’ve called it the re-humanisation process.

My mother is a realist, and she’s had biological and adoptive children, and she said it’s no different: No matter what, they’re putting a stranger into your arms. You don’t know them yet.

That the state of knowledge in any country will exert a directive influence on the general system of instruction adopted in it, is a principle too obvious to require investigation.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

Experience has taught us, that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures best calculated for their own good, without the intervention of a coercive power.

You deny your own values and opinions, and you adopt a personality that isn’t you.

When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.