If you can create an environment where people are invited to do their best work and the best ideas always win, then the project itself will win.

Practice being in the moment when you are running, whether you are on your own or in the race.

When I first got to L.A., I was stretching $20 a week, waiting tables, and I did that for about six months. I didn't mind it at all, I was really happy for that experience, but it made me really get aggressive about what I want. I've been doing this since I was eight, and never considered doing anything else, so I really had to kick it into gear.

I have learned that keeping my personal life outside of work is the easier, richer way to work.

I love that there's a beginning, middle and end to a film and you can craft what the whole journey is going to look like.

I went to school. I went to Juilliard. You spend 13 hours a day on voice and speech. Now I realize why.

In school, I was always being cast as the clown. And then I did The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), and once people hear you scream, they can't un-hear it. But I don't mean to say that I've been typecast, either.