Alexander Payne's very specific. His scripts are always complete when you start working on them.

The Oscar changed everything. Better salary, working with better people, better projects, more exposure, less privacy.

It was also wonderful to have the prospect of playing with Jack Nicholson. It was a terrific part, a terrific script, with Alexander Payne and Jack Nicholson. You can't get any better than that!

Jack made it very comfortable for me on the set. We'd met socially before but never worked together. You know, he's very professional, very disciplined and he's always prepared and knows his lines.

Alexander Payne's very specific. His scripts are always complete when you start working on them.

I try to always stretch myself to fit the characters that have been presented.

I look for a role that hopefully I feel empathy with and that I can understand and love, but also that has that challenge for me to play - a different kind of role, a different type of character, a different time period.

I think that being in an environment is a much richer experience than just working on a soundstage.

Every time an Oscar is given out, an agent gets his wings.

After winning the Oscar, I was committed to do 'Fried Green Tomatoes,' but I didn't know what the next thing would be after that. It was a scary time. But the advantage of TV is the regular work. All you need is a hit series, I guess.

And people are always saying: 'Well, you go to Hollywood and you get yourself a film career or a TV series, and then you can do anything you want. Because then you've got the clout.' That had always sounded like a lot of hooey to me, but now I think it's true, unfortunately.

Drama comes more naturally to me. It's the comedy you really have to delve into.

For a long time I did not want to do television because I did not want to get stuck playing the same person. I wanted the ongoing challenge of a variety of roles.

I have always had a problem with my weight.

I have to pay the bills just like everybody else, but it also pays my soul to work.

I haven't talked much about being an ovarian cancer survivor because I don't really want to define myself that way.

I hope I look skinnier in 3D. I hope I don't look three times as fat. That'll be disappointing.

I want to be defined by my own essence.

I was never an ingenue. I've always just been a character actor. When I was younger, it was a real problem, because I was never pretty enough. It was hard, not just for the lack of work, but because you have to face up to how people are looking at you.

I went from years of honing my craft to sudden recognition. It was quite a life changer.

I'm not a stunning woman.

I'm not that conservative. I do feel - I guess I'm more of a Democrat at heart, although I've never affiliated myself with a particular party.

I'm very lucky to be able to do what I love to do, and I hope I can keep doing it for a while.

My mother used to tell this corny story about how the doctor smacked me on the behind when I was born and I thought it was applause, and I have been looking for it ever since.

The roles I was lucky enough to get were real stretches for me: usually a character who was older, or a little weird, or whatever. And it was hard, not just for the lack of work but because you have to face up to how people are looking at you.

I was so busy climbing up this ladder, staying above the water. If there was only room for one woman in a room, I wanted to be her. I'm not proud of it. I certainly don't feel that way now. It was an absolute evolution for me.

There are glimpses of heaven to us in every act, or thought, or word, that raises us above ourselves.

I wake up fairly early every day, by 8, for sure. Sunday is a lighter writing day than the weekdays, but I still wake up and write for about an hour, beginning right around 8. I definitely have coffee first, and then I start writing. I do think it's kind of hard to get the right level of concentration without coffee.

Auditioning is the most terrifying thing I've ever done. There must have been four or five of them where I completely froze up and walked out of the room. My palms get sweaty just thinking about it.

I've always found a cure for the blues is wandering into something unknown, and resting there, before coming back to whatever weight you were carrying.

For my type of story and my kind of writing, I think 'Vanity Fair' is the right forum.

How did I become a star? I don't know how it happened. When I look at my old pictures, I can't tell how it happened!

I'm considering going back to school to become a registered dance therapist.

I want to warn against the Fifth Column which is trying to hinder our free way of life in Holland.

I'm constantly pitching one episode where we see life through Castle's eyes. I think Castle's just a little off as far as his perception goes. A very, very clever man, but I want to see the world as Castle sees it - kind of a rose-colored glasses, all the women find him irresistible, all the guys find him super cool and do whatever he says.

Gratification and happiness are becoming important measures of our quality of life.

If God should desire to raise us to the position of one who is an intimate and shares his secrets, we ought to accept this gladly.

I've done a lot of dramas, and I've done a lot of serious stuff - some really heavy stuff... which I loved, but I wanted to do something light and airy. I think the challenge for an actor is always to see which parts of you you can explore and go have fun with.

The desire for excellence becomes a reality when an individual sets a standard, reach it and surpass it consistently.

I fully expect that NASA will send me back to the moon as they treated Sen. Glenn, and if they don't do otherwise, why, then I'll have to do it myself.

It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.

We as artists are actively encouraged - by other authors, your agent, publisher, and society - not to think about money, strategy, how to manage your career, how to create a brand, because we're supposed to focus on the art.

There are 435 members of Congress. There's one 'Morning Joe' show. Hopefully, we can keep hammering the argument that you can disagree with other people and have debates but remain civil.

So being two different people in one day unnerved me to no end.

I play golf for a living. I'm grateful for that. It's a beautiful game, provides a great opportunity.

My father served as an Army doctor in West Germany in the late '50s and early '60s. As a result, he and my mother - both native southerners - were acutely aware of what had happened during the Holocaust.

With the movies, people are not going to wait around. The deadline is a deadline. In publishing it's more a polite suggestion.

As a fiscal conservative, I think that our government should pay for itself.

I'm one of those people who when I go over a bridge, I want to jump. It's just this intense tickle in the back of my throat. It's like I'm on the verge the whole time I'm walking over that bridge, and I'm not going to get a release until I jump.