To be a character actor is to be open, to be a chameleon.

I just want to serve up the goodness and grace that's been given to me because I made a choice that lined up with my passion. And that's what I tell my kids.

I think many people have contradictions to them and I love characters that deal with those contradictions.

I have a lot of very, very powerful women in my life. My mother being the first.

When you have great acting partners, you hope that your reaction to them is propels you deeper into your own character.

I never like to refer back to anything I've done when I'm working on a character, even if that character has the same occupation.

Many times - especially when I'm playing an historical character - I want to be really on target with how I create that character and really nuanced with who that human being might be. But I don't want to lose the likeness of me or the depth of my own personality. So meditation and my spirituality has helped me to realize that, yes, I want to get out of the way but I also want the ability to hold on to what the audience likes of what they see of me.