I knew we were going to marry someday, but I was absolutely surprised when he actually proposed. And surprised he had bought a ring. I ran around the yard screaming.

I'm still really close with everyone at home and their parents - and their brothers and sisters. I was so, so, so lucky to grow up as part of a community and I don't take that for granted. I try very hard to stay part of it.

I would roll up pennies to take the subway to work in Times Square. I was broke, but I was happy.

I don't have this fantasy about marriage anymore. Everyone says it takes hard work. Well, it kind of does - and I'm much more pragmatic about romance than I used to be.

I knew we were going to marry someday, but I was absolutely surprised when he actually proposed. And surprised he had bought a ring. I ran around the yard screaming.

I was a ballet dancer and that kind of bled into musical theater. I was constantly in rehearsal for one thing or another.

Well, you can't be trying to achieve success of any kind in this business without accepting that there's going to be a flip side to it.

My big sister Melissa, is such a stud and my little sister Suzanna, has always had a perfect body and big blue eyes. We were a force.

And you can't hide in a comedy scene either. You have to give in to the scene and commit.

And now, I still really don't care that much but now I have music playing all the time at home, which is a first for me. Whatever. Everything from Ani DiFranco to Dave Matthews to Jack Johnson and Norah Jones.

Beauty comes from a life well lived. If you've lived well, your smile lines are in the right places, and your frown lines aren't too bad, what more do you need?

To become a classical ballerina, you have to move to New York when you're 12 or 11 and that becomes your life. I just wanted to be good in my company in Charleston and I wanted it to always be part of my life.

I love being physical and acting at the same time.

I think that it's not as crazily different, my job, from anyone else's, as people let themselves believe. I think people get wrapped up in their own idea of what it is, but it's really not that.

But I'll never be one of those women who feel that they always have to wear earrings and aren't properly dressed without them.

Going after 'the bad guy' has not been a real issue for me.

Growing up where I did, the thought of working on a television show or in a movie... that existed on a parallel plane, you know?

I always, always meant to be on stage. I only ended up even auditioning for television and movies because I was understudying a Turgenev play on Broadway and was so broke that, when I got a mini-series, I had to take it and was so ashamed because I was such a snob.

I am lucky to have had an attentive, curious and loving dad and heart-smart, down-to-earth, gifted mother. They changed the outlooks of their own lives and have never forgotten the people and organizations that helped them dream bigger than their circumstances should have allowed.

I am not pregnant, but I've had three kids, and there is a 'bump.' From now on, ladies, I will have a 'bump,' and it will be my 'baby bump,' and let's just all settle in and get used to it; it's not going anywhere.

I am the model middle child. I am patient and I like to take care of everyone. Being called nice is a compliment. It's not a boring way to describe me.

I am usually part of any disaster at a wedding if I'm a bridesmaid, which I've been lucky enough to be several times.

I certainly never expected to be in front of a camera one day of my life.

I danced six hours a day. My cross to bear is that my children have no interest in ballet. I think they could smell how much I wanted to put their hair in a bun.

I didn't drink. I was never a big party girl, but I streaked. I was just in a naked frame of mind. I don't think I was the only streaker, but I might have been the leader of the streakers! And we just all streaked, all summer.

I do all my own stunts!

I do like having my ears pierced, because there's a lot more choice in pierced earrings than there is with clip-ons, and they're a lot more comfortable to wear - Sometimes I completely forget I've got them in and end up going to sleep wearing them.

I do think about aging. I have those moments of panic and vanity, but life keeps getting better, so you can't worry about it too much.

I don't know anyone who was never a geek, really, when they look at their own lives. I think that from the outside looking in, you think that you weren't necessarily a tragic geek, but yes, you did lean in that direction.

I feel lucky, though, because even when 'Alias' was popular, I was still sent scripts against type. I've never felt like the world only sees me one way. But yes, it's been really fun to be bad.

I have a great deal of respect for any women that will enter the world of little boys of sports.

I have always been drawn to child-related causes. I find that people listen to me more when I advocate for children now that I have my own.

I hoped, hoped, that maybe I'd be lucky enough to do something on Broadway, in the chorus.

I just try work out at least twice a week if I can.

I know I live a charmed, beautiful life and nobody wants to hear a celebrity whine. The last thing I want to do is complain; I love what I do and I know every job comes with a downside.

I like watching Tom Brady, not just because he's handsome - I get handsome; I understand handsome - but he's a fine leader, he's a great quarterback, and I like the team. I'm not going to apologize for that.

I love the feeling of being on a team, rehearsing together, sharing a dressing room - I love that so much.

I mean, I didn't ever watch 'Gilligan's Island' and think, 'Those people are actors.' I lived in West Virginia. Hollywood just felt like this total other universe.

I mean, any time an actress gets to work with another actress, it's like, 'Oh, there are two of us in a movie! How are you? Let's sit in the hair chair together!' We're lonely women.

I miss West Virginia very much.

I never had a problem resisting somebody that I knew was going to break my heart.

I really thought when I was pregnant with my first that it wouldn't affect my work at all; it would just be a baby that grows up on set. And I was absolutely wrong. For women, the high point of their career and needing to have babies just don't really go together.

I rebelled by not getting straight A's and not following the path that my elder sister did. She was valedictorian and is very exemplary in her way. I look a lot like her, so I just had to do the opposite. Not that I got bad grades, but I was all about performance and just finding any way that I could to be involved in any kind of production.

I remember, my mom didn't have any help, so if she needed to be somewhere after school, we'd just go down to the neighbors' and she'd give us a snack and make sure we did our homework. There weren't any latchkey kids.

I think that baseball games are like soap operas. If you watch five in a row, you know enough to get hooked.

I thought the divorce statistics would never apply to me. I was beyond heartbroken when they did. But I got up and got on with it. I also kept my belief in marriage.

I try to eat in a way that makes me feel good. If that means a little bite of chocolate I do that, but I try not to use food as a reward for myself.

I want flowers; I don't want to text. What does that make me? What kind of dinosaur am I?

I wasn't a woman who stayed tiny like I thought I would. I definitely gave myself the freedom to eat what I wanted.