I'd like to think I could do something great - a performance like Meryl Streep's in 'Sophie's Choice' - at some point in my life. At the same time, though, I don't want to put too much pressure on myself to be great.

Whenever I meet people who seem really sweet and unassuming, I kind of wonder about them.

I'd like to think I could do something great - a performance like Meryl Streep's in 'Sophie's Choice' - at some point in my life. At the same time, though, I don't want to put too much pressure on myself to be great.

A man can be 43, and people will say, 'Oh, he's a cool bachelor, and he just hasn't settled down,' but with a woman, it's, 'Oh, she must have really wanted to get married, but she didn't.' I honestly think that attitude is a little bit sexist.

As a kid, I read 'Peter Pan,' and I really wanted to be him.

Gosh, it's so fun to do a movie where there's nothing dark happening in it.

I admire those people who hold on to their elegance in old age but I'd rather have fun.

I always wanted to be the pretty girl, but I thought I wasn't. When I started acting and getting pretty girl roles, I felt like I was just pretending, and nobody saw I was just this big nerd.

I am a bit of a Valley girl, so I say 'you know' and 'like' too much.

I am intrigued by different religions and respect them all, but to be honest, I feel the most spiritual when I am doing yoga or looking at an ocean. Being spiritual is feeling a connection with a higher power and knowing that life is about more than just achieving goals. It is about feeling good in the moment.

I basically think that I'm a fairly nice, normal person with just a few eccentricities.

I definitely like not working sometimes. It's so fun. I just love sleeping in. In America, everyone is driven to succeed and wake up and do something. But I don't care. I want to sleep in. I want to relax. I don't want to have to get up every day.

I do have the roller skates from 'Boogie Nights.'

I don't need to try so hard to be someone else.

I guess you just feel like there's a whole story that's not being told in movies. You're only seeing the macho guy version of a story that from the woman's side, may be completely different.

I just try to take the best opportunities that I can get.

I like doing yoga. I do yoga three times a week and I do Pilates twice.

I like the idea of a family, but I don't know that I'd like to be a single mum.

I practice transcendental meditation and there is a phase where you're meant to lift off the ground.

I remember when we were shooting 'Boogie Nights,' all of my stand-ins were wiping out all the time. I'd practice before I got to the set, but they'd just show up and put on the roller-skates, and they'd be skating over these wires and cables, so they would all fall over. It was totally dangerous.

I sleep as much as I want. I'll sleep, like, 11 hours, unless I'm working. Sometimes I do feel like, 'This is weird; I should just get up so I can fit into the world.' Then I'm like, 'Why?' I don't have a nine-to-five job.

I think Korean barbecue is very accessible to Americans because it's sort of similar to something we know, but with different flavours.

I think if you're an actor you kind of have to be willing to look stupid.

I think it might be nice to date someone not in the business.

I think you have to be honest and not try to be somebody that you really aren't.

I took karate classes for a few years. Taekwondo. I'd love to do a movie role where I could do some karate.

I try to get 11 or 12 hours of sleep a night. It sounds excessive but that's really what I need.

I used to dress up in my mom's old clothes and play with these kids from the neighbourhood and make up stories: I would pretend that we were all vampires.

I want to be able to fly like a superhero. I won't be happy until I can fly across oceans and cities, saving people from being murdered.

I was taught to be demure, so it was harder for me to learn how to stand up for myself and go, 'What do I want? What are my desires?'

I watched movies and thought, 'I want to be in movies,' and wanted to be an actor.

I wish that there were more female driven films, female-centric films being made.

I work out a lot and I do yoga and I do Pilates and I'm kind of athletic. I've taken dance classes, but at the same point I'm just a total klutz.

I'd have made a terrible nun.

I'd rather be happily single than unhappily married.

I'd rather look old than look as if I'd had plastic surgery. Sometimes it looks really fake; all people can think about when they look at you is that you've had plastic surgery.

I'm a good Catholic girl in the way that Madonna is. In the sense that I'm not that good at all.

I'm not actually a mom in real life, so it's fun to pretend to be one. I like to approach things the same in art as in life. You can choose to look on the positive side and enjoy whatever roles you're given. You can find the silver lining in anything.

I'm not the kind of person who needs to be a mother no matter what. Life brings you people. Maybe I'll nurture someone who's not my child, like a friend, or an actor I'm working with who needs some love.

I've been evaluating how much I value happiness in my life. To be too driven takes away your happiness.

I've learnt to take care of myself.

In my own life, I've written scripts that I want to direct, so I would love to take my own creativity in a way where I could tell my own story. That does inspire me, the idea of becoming a director.

It would be nice if I did have a good relationship with my family, and yes, part of me longs to have a mum and dad who love and accept me for who I am. But if they never do, it's OK.

It's good to be able to be a leading lady, to be a romantic lead, to play opposite people who are talented, and charismatic and stuff.

Once a week, I spend a day luxuriating in bed. I like staying in my house, pottering around, and maybe cooking or just laying around reading. I love doing yoga and transcendental meditation.

The funny thing is, I look at these magazines that make me so insecure and neurotic, but I'm in them!

The ultimate fun is doing nothing. I like doing nothing with people I like - maybe just eating, hanging out and talking.

There are less opportunities for women.

There's always a side of me that goes, 'I'm just a nerd.' I never look at myself and say, 'I'm beautiful.' Like anyone else, I see the flaws. Guys don't do that as much as women. But you have to learn to appreciate and accept and love yourself as you are.