You can't be from Montgomery, Alabama, and not have a background in the church. It's at the core of who we are as a people.

For me, when you have to prepare to play God, and then walking away from that, you realize just how tough God's job is. I don't want that job.

I'm glad that I get to take my final walk as the princess of 2012. ...there's nothing wrong with winning an Oscar!

As an actor, I've learned to become a detective. You have to figure out who that person is. If the character is a thief, you have to figure out what makes them a thief. Whatever the prevailing idiosyncrasy is, I have to find it in the script.

I want to see more women behind the scenes.

It is important to learn as much as you can about the person and then throw it all away so that you're not in any way doing some sort of mimicry.

I'm an actor and I am looking for roles where I can continue to evolve, and things that are challenging. I gravitate to the roles, not necessarily television or film. It's just the fact that, for me, the most interesting roles have been in television.