We shouldn't require our politicians to be movie stars. Then again, we're all influenced by charisma. It's hard not to be. We all collectively fall for it.

I was lucky enough to come in at the beginning of the independent film movement, and it's really shaped my life and my career.

When I was younger, I thought I had to shut myself off, work really hard to cry. I learned after a while that that's just not... You know, often in life, you cry when you're caught off-guard. That's where I need to be when I'm acting, too.

Right before I met my husband, I always felt as if the party was happening somewhere else. And once I met him and we had our children, I was like, 'This is where the party is.'

The audience doesn't come to see you, they come to see themselves.

I read a lot, I always read. I like to be inside a story. When I started acting, even in high school, it sort of felt like that's as close as you can get to being inside a book, and I feel that way even with movies more so, because you've kind of created this imaginary world, and everybody is colluding to create it.

I like the excitement you get at touching another human being when you're acting with them and then having a little spark and not knowing what is going to happen in between you.