I've made a career of taking roles that other actresses didn't want.

There's definitely a psychology to making you feel important and like you're part of the game. It's a very special quality, especially with a first-time director.

When you're making a movie, you feel like a very small part of something that you really don't have much influence upon. You roll in, you do your thing, and then you're gone.

The great thing about Jane Austen - the reason we're all still obsessed with her - is that she gets inside a woman's mind and she taps into our fantasies of wanting to be accepted and loved for who we are.

An obsession that I've developed in my old age, is great architecture. I bought a house in New Orleans and I became quite enamored of the architecture there. It began there. I travel a lot or my work, so now, wherever I go, I wasn't to find the most beautiful church, the most beautiful museums. Anything ancient.

A boyfriend has so much to do with a woman blossoming.

I have been able to sniff out a phony.