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.

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 live in Los Angeles where there is not that much in the way of theatre, so the La Jolla Playhouse is pretty much the only place that is on my radar, and when they have something going on, and I am available, I will certainly go in.

I've been my mom's kitchen helper since I was a little kid.

I hope nuclear becomes a part of the conversation, at the right time when we recognize the importance of that resource. I hope we can work that out as a country and figure out how we are going to put nuclear in the mix.

Laws control the lesser man... Right conduct controls the greater one.

Being submissive does not mean that we don't give honest feedback.

I can tell you that the Canadian intelligence and law enforcement agencies have been providing outstanding co-operation with our intelligence and law enforcement agencies as we work together to track down terrorists here in North America and put them out of commission.

I'd like my super power to be puns; I'd like to be great at puns: pun power. Then I could go on loads of panel shows and live off that forever.

Among the notable things about fire is that it also requires oxygen to burn - exactly like its enemy, life. Thereby are life and flames so often compared.

I am a Brazilian before I am an architect. I cannot separate the two.

I love Taco Bell. Whenever I go there, I could get anything on the menu and be totally happy.

For reasons we don't have to get into, climate change has become an incredibly polarized issue in the United States. I think that is sad. My own personal view is that we're in a planetary emergency such has not been seen in 600,000 years.

David wasn't thinking of being king when he was tending sheep; he was just doing what God sat before him.

The poll that matters is the one that happens on Election Day.

A player is said to have the opposition when he can place his King directly in front of the adverse King, with only one square between them. This is often an important advantage in ending games.

Contraceptive protection is something every woman must have access to, to control her own destiny.

My family always comes first. My world revolves around my husband, Peter, our daughter, Victoria, and our son, William, but not necessarily in that order. Then, it's this fascinating world of publishing that devours most of my days and many nights.

It's nice to sometimes get things out of life, rather than stealing from other artists. I'm trying to steal from the real people.

What an audience decides about where certain characters come from is really up to them.

It's very rare that publications double their frequency.

I grew up knowing the importance of breast cancer.

It's impossible, I think, however much I'd become disillusioned politically or evolve into a post-political person, I don't think I'd ever change my view that socialism is the best political moment humans have ever come up with.

When you are a novelist, you are used to making a narrative do what you want.

'Blowback,' as many 'Nation' readers are aware, was a term introduced into popular circulation by the late political scientist Chalmers Johnson, an old Cold Warrior turned dissident.

But I've found that to talk too much about movies is the kiss of death. If it happens then it happens, is all.