Is it harder having kids and working? It definitely is, but the payoff is you get to go home to your kids, and it all balances out. And I know I'm a better mother when I'm engaged in something outside of the house.

There is no question that sobriety has made me a better actor, made me a better person.

With everything that you do, once the costume is on, and you're in the pretend hospital, and you're there with your co-workers, it all sort of snaps into place: Who you are, what it feels like, who these people are to you.

I never really wanted kids. I didn't not want them, but motherhood just wasn't something that pulled at me.

The common misconception is that as an actress you have to learn what you're doing. No, you just have to make the audience think you've learned it.

Coming home to my family afterward makes the work richer, easier and more fun.

Mother elephants in the circus cannot help their babies, but we can.