I've just been really lucky to not be too much of a stereotype.

I really don't like when things are all polished and perfect - the perfect love story and the hair is perfect.

You express different energies at different times in your life.

Not to get overly psychological about this, but it's probably why I became an actress in the first place: for that kind of freedom and refuge, as well as for the fact that I just love acting so much.

Politics itself is so unsexy, isn't it? But when the politics in creative works are really explored - not used as a vehicle - the results can be really interesting.

I grew up on musicals, and I know they are quite the thing now, but I'm actually a little indignant, because I started taking singing lessons years ago - I put the time in!

All of us have read the stories about young people in Hollywood and all the challenges they have to confront there, and I think that artistically, I really didn't understand the commercial side of the film business, so I went back to a purely artistic setting.

I don't prefer much of film over stage. The only thing I prefer is the paycheck.

I've just been really lucky to not be too much of a stereotype.

With acting, it was really more of a general kind of experience of really just loving being in the theater.

You have your structure, but within it, it gets fuller and you can highlight other parts of the performance.

I was exposed to the arts, but there was no one in my family who was an artist.

A man like Wilde was not free to live out of the closet as a homosexual, and women in general were not able to be truly themselves; there was no place for a woman's voice to be heard or for her to express her sexuality.

I am really not of the school of naturalism. I like style, and you can use more style in theater than in film roles. I love to sink my teeth into a part.

Comedy is what I really want to do and propel.

I can't tell stories to save my life. I like to have fun, and I go out and have a lot of fun. But I'm not really an entertainer that way. I'm much more shy.

I don't prefer much of film over stage... The only thing I prefer is the paycheck.

I feel like theatre gives me the grounding, and keeps me alive, basically. Film gives me the thrill, and it's like a one night stand. But I do enjoy being around people who love it so much.

I find that protein wakes up my brain and gets me ready for the rest of my day.

I love being outside and getting fresh air.

I never got into coffee.

I prefer to express myself physically, or non-verbally. I prefer just to react without having a lot of dialogue.

I think the fantasy of being a movie star is more powerful than the reality. So, for me, even if it's not a great film or a great play I'm doing, to know that you went for it. You had an experience that made you grow artistically and personally. What's really satisfying is knowing that you did a good job.

I'm a person who has to eat! I graze every few hours.

I'm not that big a fan of marriage as an institution and I don't know why women need to have children to be seen as complete human beings.

I've just been lucky. I'd like to have more choices, and I'd like to have a leading part.

Singing really oxygenates your blood. You stretch your lungs and take in much more air into them than before. It's really good for your health.

You can't really be old in L.A., it's kind of like a crime.

Letting journalism be from the perspective of the journalist. It's usually a no-no, and journalists are encouraged to be completely objective.

I never have time to myself; it's the one thing about my life I would probably hope to change.

I come from a family of all women and one boy, my brother. We're all women and we're all precocious and opinionated and like to have fun and we always had friends in the house and we were always, like, half-naked.

Nobody who has even kicked a ball in the street likes losing.

We have to challenge the whole idea that it's acceptable for a society like Britain to have such a significant number of people who do not work one day of the week and don't have any possibility of improving the quality of their lives.

My favorite holiday spot has to be New York, on the St. Lawrence River. Without a doubt that area there is perfect for me. Very, very spacious. It's nice.

There must be some security arrangement in the south of Lebanon so northern Israel is not threatened anymore.

You, I, we all encounter behaviors that we might say, I wouldn't do that. But she has a huge amount of contact with how people live. She sees more hospices and sink estates than most people.

It is youth that has discovered love as a weapon.

I've taken advantage of a few breaks that came along and moved along with them.

Washington, D.C., has everything that Rome, Paris and London have in the way of great architecture - great power bases. Washington has obelisks and pyramids and underground tunnels and great art and a whole shadow world that we really don't see.

The purpose of terrorism lies not just in the violent act itself. It is in producing terror. It sets out to inflame, to divide, to produce consequences which they then use to justify further terror.

The freedom you feel when you're actually in control of your own music is fantastic.

The most heartbreaking things are the ones that are sometimes the truest.

I'm not much for cats. I'm terrified of mice. I've worked a lot with elephants, and they are extremely intelligent and sensitive, and thankfully, they seem to like me. You never want to get on the bad side of an elephant. And never trust a chimp.

I've certainly had periods when I felt like life was winning and I was losing, so I think everybody can relate to that quandary - the temptation to give in, to give up, and then what It takes to keep going.

I shall die in the belief that to make France free republican and prosperous a little ink would have sufficed and only one guillotine.

I know that every actor that I know, when Daniel Day-Lewis does a film, and he doesn't work that often, but we run to the theater to see what he's up to, and with such delicious excitement. The same goes for Meryl Streep.

With young people, there's often that carelessness, allowing yourself to get into danger - recklessness, I suppose.

Lists are anti-democratic, discriminatory, elitist, and sometimes the print is too small.

I found it really difficult when teachers talked down to me.