I kind of understand now why people freak out when they see celebrities that they love, because that's how I feel about every single Muppet.

I'm lucky because I have so many clashing cultural, racial things going on: black, Jewish, Irish, Portuguese, Cherokee. I can float and be part of any community I want.

You can't really invest in your looks as the only thing because it's a depreciating asset. It's like putting money into a stock that's going down.

I have friends who have no choice; they came from whatever town, they didn't have anybody in entertainment and they just knew they wanted to act and they did it.

I don't think any other emotion is the equivalent of laughter. So I do whatever I can to laugh all the time and to hide my pain.

I think there is this thing where people are impressed - it gives you a leg up in the sense that people won't treat you like a run-of-the-mill actress. They'll assign "smart" to your word bank, your adjective bank.

There's no sense that you can knock on your neighbor's door or be part of a local community group, and that's part of your responsibility as a human being.