Uma Thurman

Modeling is basically 'Buy more stuff! Don't you want some more stuff? It will make you look ten years younger and men will like you!' If I'd wanted to be a salesperson, I would have got a job selling.

When asked if I consider myself Buddhist, the answer is, Not really. But it's more my religion than any other because I was brought up with it in an intellectual and spiritual environment. I don't practice or preach it, however.

And also I think particularly as a female, you're taught to be defensive your whole life. You're taught not to be aggressive.

I never ever slept again after my first pregnancy.

I grew up in a mostly Buddhist environment.

Buddhism has had a major effect on who I am and how I think about the world. What I have learned is that I like all religions, but only parts of them.

Three tomatoes are walking down the street-a poppa tomato, a mamma tomato, and a little baby tomato. Baby tomato starts lagging behind. Poppa tomato gets angry, goes over to the baby tomato, and smooshes him and says, Catch up.

I was an escapee of childhood. I always wanted to grow up.

I used to be more paranoid and stressed, constantly worrying about my Plan B. But the truth is I don't have one.

It is better to have a relationship with someone who cheats on you than with someone who does not flush the toilet.

Tall sandy blonde with sort of blue eyes skinny in places fat in others. An average gal.

To be with a man who hasn't tried every line, who hasn't broken up with a woman every which way you can break up with them, is kind of nice.

I'm lucky to have been raised in the most beautiful place - Amherst, Massachusetts, state of my heart. I'm more patriotic to Massachusetts than to almost any place.

Fun wouldn't be the right word... it was the most difficult, challenging, physical, extraordinary stretch I've ever had to make, in all those wild regards.

It's hard sometimes if you think a character should look a certain way and you're being pushed to do it differently. I've had fights over that. That's why it's so important that you work with good people.

For a writer, they say write what you know. As a performer, you find it in yourself, in your heart. You relate to the character. You try to live it, try to have it be real for you.

Before I had my child, I thought I knew all the boundaries of myself, that I understood the limits of my heart. It's extraordinary to have all those limits thrown out, to realize your love is inexhaustible.

So, you know, parenting is a very intimate and amazing experience and one of the best experiences of my life.

Even, today, when people tell me I'm beautiful, I do not believe a word of it.

My washing machine overwhelms me with its options and its sophistication.

Daring to me is having courage its a daily meditation to take breath and find strength.

I would love to do something like Austin Powers to show off my comic timing.

Desperation is the perfume of the young actor. It's so satisfying to have gotten rid of it. If you keep smelling it, it can drive you crazy. In this business a lot of people go nuts, go eccentric, even end up dead from it. Not my plan.

I love and adore being a mother. It's the greatest gift I've ever been given.

We never left a set until we'd trashed it.

I had to go to a mirror and look at it. I couldn't picture myself in my own head. I had no image beyond a stick figure. I wasn't a mean person as a kid, or dumb, and something has to be said to justify excluding you.

I spent the first fourteen years of my life convinced that my looks were hideous. Adolescence is painful for everyone, I know, but mine was plain weird.

I was not particularly bright, I wasn't very athletic, I was a little too tall, odd, funny looking, I was just really weird as a kid.

There are so many ebbs and flows in life, but when you're raising small children, your family means everything.

Tall, sandy blonde, with sort of blue eyes, skinny in places, fat in others. An average gal.

I'm very happy at home. I love to just hang out with my daughter, I love to work in my garden. I'm not a gaping hole of need.