What made me fall in love with acting, which is my life, was watching other people perform. It made me hunger to do that.

Life came in and put me in front of the camera before I could really make a decision, but I think I probably would have gravitated to film.

I don't think people were betting on me, but they were giving me a chance. I think I rode a wave there, by being different in appearance than the girls who preceded me.

I'm a great fan of Carey Lowell's and I loved Jill Hennessey.

Better to just be real. Show up and do your job and be a nice person.

I've grown as a person. The dynamics on this set are very demanding because we work a lot of hours, it's very sad material, so there's always someone upset because it's really heavy stuff.

The business is a very tricky obstacle course, and you should be very clear about work begetting work. If you're not working, you're not interesting.

I was very excited about the idea that I could be an idealist, that I could be my age, the eager beaver who had hope in the justice system and the one who gets disappointed just like the audience.

I got out of college in 1997, and TV embraced me very quickly.

I try to watch the show every week and improve upon myself. I've become a fan.

I always wanted the fairy tale, but now I want someone who is a great partner.

You've got to clock the hours and pay your dues. Then eventually, people will come to you. You have to be patient and appreciative.

Dick Wolf was my first boss after coming out of Sarah Lawrence.

I needed to move, but I haven't had the time to find a place to go.

When you fall head over heels for someone, you're not falling in love with who they are as a person; you're falling in love with your idea of love.

You never stop learning. If you have a teacher, you never stop being a student.

I stuck out like a sore thumb when I came on, just by the fact that I looked so different. I think that adjustment for the audience was a hurdle for me.

I've grown up so much here. It's been two years. I've become a woman here, I've become an actress here.

What made me fall in love with acting, which is my life, was watching other people perform. It made me hunger to do that.

I would love for TNT to run the whole season at one point. I don't think that'll ever happen, though.

It's really nice to pass the ball when you're in an ensemble cast.

It would probably break my heart to hear that people didn't like me. I don't look on the Internet.

I had a soap opera, and my next job was working with Kyle McLachlan on The Invisible Man.

I'm a straight shooter, a New York City girl. I see things as they are and call them as they are.

That difficult place to put your finger on about the world - it needs to be illustrated.

I have a lot of courage. I'm a realist.

Youve got to clock the hours and pay your dues. Then eventually people will come to you. You have to be patient and appreciative.

That difficult place to put your finger on about the world it needs to be illustrated.

It was always part of the plan to move into acting.

Be where the acting is. I live in Houston. Dallas is 4 1/2 hours away. I let them know there's no difference.

My mother keeps things in perspective for me. She makes me realize that the acting I do and love is no more important than what one of my brothers does-he works in a shoe repair shop. If my career ever tapers off, I'll go to college.

In Hungary, acting is a career for which one fits himself as earnestly as one studies for a degree in medicine, law, or philosophy.

I think acting is about forgetting yourself in order to give the best of yourself. It's passing through you more than you're creating it. You're not the flower, but the vase which holds the flower.

In LA, too many people want to go the quickest route from A to B. Method acting offers them that.

I don't see it as a form of healing, because if you have wounds that are bleeding I don't think acting will ever get them to stop. But I find acting is a form of illumination.

Maybe I can't act, but I know the gimmicks. I studied acting all my life and know what's good for me.

I know that if I'd had to go and take an exam for acting, I wouldn't have got anywhere. You don't take exams for acting, you take your courage.

I'm not acting, but I am acting.

I've done a lot of acting. I'm not saying I'm the greatest, but I'd love to act, I'd love to sing.

I had a bonding problem when I went off and boxed for five years. I was over in Europe and Asia fighting because I wanted to do something different; I was tired of acting. But the thing is, when I was done doing that, I couldn't get a job.

Acting for me is not that quid pro quo.

If you're acting, then there's a prescribed way to behave; whereas in life there's no prescribed way. So acting feels like a comfortable way to get through the day.

When I was a kid, the idea of why I wanted acting to be the thing I do for the rest of my life was different. It was, Oh yeah, I'll get girls and be famous.

And then, I suppose, there's also a cinematic reality on top of that. Because it was extremely difficult to keep tabs on, it was quite confusing acting that.

I read. It's also nice for me to get involved in schoolwork, which is a totally different world than acting. It makes me feel like I am doing things that normal people are doing at my age.

It's a living, breathing thing, acting.

A few nights ago I went to a Hollywood screening of a small independent film made by Sally Kirkland, an old friend of mine who also did terrific job acting in it. There were other actors in it and they were all terrific.

Plastic surgery and breast implants are fine for people who want that, if it makes them feel better about who they are. But, it makes these people, actors especially, fantasy figures for a fantasy world. Acting is about being real being honest.

I don't see my dancing or acting as two separate things. I don't define them separately, so I can't say one has helped the other, It's all the same thing. More than anything I love being on stage and performing.