Everything seems to take on a new meaning when you become a parent and you put yourself in the shoes of the parent, not the shoes of the child.

I remember when I took the role on E.R., I thought, 'I haven't really been able to play a working class woman. I've played girls, I've played funny, but I haven't played a working class woman. That sounds like something I'd like to do.

I think you have to have a little bit of a screw loose to think that you can [become an actor] because the odds are so against you. I was just crazy enough to think I could do it.

Just because someone isn't working at an office doesn't mean they're not working hard at something.

Being raised Catholic myself, I think people who are Catholic tend to carry a lot of guilt. It's almost a joke.

There are not that many jobs as an actor where you don't get to know what your character will be doing from episode to episode.

I think the hardest thing about the part is the responsibility that you feel playing something that is so real and resonant in our times. There are people coming home right now with those stories, and I'm just an actress pretending to be that person. You hope that you can shed some light on somebody's predicament.