I'm attracted to things that make me want to be a better person.

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.

As we women know, there are so many other hurdles that we have to cross that I would love it if we could stop having the race conversation so that we can get women further on. You know, a female president now that we have an African American president. Maybe we can get an Asian female, a gay person?

I didn't realize that diets don't work, and I did not want to diet. I didn't want to do anything that required dieting.

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.

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 think if I weren't so squeamish, I would have been some sort of forensic analyst. And I can't do anything with a microscope, because then I start thinking about the world of germs around us.