People assume actresses are afraid to get older; the truth is the roles get a whole lot more compelling once you're too old to play dumb.

If I could play drums like Patrick Carney or Taylor Hawkins, I'd be a really happy person.

Once I took a bus from my home in Maryland to Philadelphia to live on the streets with some musicians for a few weeks, and then my parents sent me to boarding school at Andover to shape me up.

The amazing thing about becoming a parent is that you will never again be your own first priority. The gift of motherhood is the selflessness that it introduces you to, and I think that's really freeing... I think it allows you to put yourself in other people's shoes...the empathy that it slugs you with, being a mother. And I think it makes you a better storyteller.

In Alien, Sigourney Weaver's role was written for a man. In Salt, Angelina Jolie's role was written for Tom Cruise. These things, when reversed, do prove to be just as exciting and entertaining with women in leading roles.

All actors should experience public failure.

I got an internship with the casting director of The Girl Next Door. I would hold the clipboard and help them in their casting sessions and get them lunch.