I want to be true to the character and maintain some consistency and give the audience what they love while at the same time keeping things fresh and grow the character.

In the theater, as an actor, you're welcoming people into your house.

Who owns your body? You or the state?

I am not a morning person. I like to sleep in.

I'm hoping maybe people like working with me because I like what I do for a living and I want to have a good time.

Once when we were fifteen, River (Phoenix) and I went out for this fancy dinner in Manhattan and I ordered soft-shell crabs. He left the restaurant and walked around on Park Avenue, crying. I went out and said, "I love you so much. Why?" He had such a pain that I was eating an animal, that he hadn't impressed on me what was right. I loved him for that. For his dramatic desire that we share every belief, that I be with him all the way

It's easier to lecture women on sexual morality than it is to explain why all Americans shouldn't have comprehensive, fair, and equal health care coverage.