If you knew everyone's story, you would love them. You can't really hate anyone if you know everything that happened to them between their birth and now; why they became the way they became; why they have walls up or down. If you truly know someone, you'd get it.

There are so many different areas to explore. There are so many different types of people. It can crush your dreams or help them come true.

That old question about whether, as a woman, you can be funny and attractive at the same time. Argh! I hate that question. Of course you can.

Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life.

Viola Davis keeps saying this movie should be called The Big Responsibility instead of The Help, because there were so many groups of people that you wanna do right by. You want to do right by Southerners and the African-American community and the readers of the book and the people that grew up with domestics and the people who worked as domestics. There's a million different groups that you're trying to please and satisfy that you're worried about not loving what comes across onscreen.

I know that when you're a teenager - sometimes when you're an adult - what sets you apart can sometimes feel like a burden and it's not. And a lot of the time, it's what makes you great.

You can always veer off the path, that's one thing that has really comforted me over the past year. When you think, 'I can't do something because of this, this and this,' you can actually do anything you want. I could go ballistic right now and tear this whole room apart. I could. I'm not going to, because logic is stopping me, but you can do whatever you want. You really can veer off any path at any time - never give up.