I had a Christian upbringing - it was all about sin and guilt. I was very happy just kissing people. I was like the make-out queen - not even second base.

I had started off, before I ever got an acting job, working at Robert De Niro's Tribeca Productions as a reader. I was always interested in that side of the camera.

I have a hard time getting motivated to do something that seems like a career move. I've gotten into vague trouble with my agents for turning down work that I thought was exploitative.

I was offered one of the roles in a big project that shall remain nameless. I thought the whole thing encouraged violent sex crimes toward women. It made horrible, ghastly rape violence seem sexy. I just didn't want to sign my name to it.

I'm doing things that are more artistic again, more close to the material that I love. I don't disparage those things that I did. They're just not as much reflective of who I am.

It's the relationships between people that are more important than the sort of far away fantasies of what the good life is, the world of supermodels and Bud ads.

There was something about being in front of audiences when I was in elementary school plays that gave me a thrill. It was like the rush you get from a roller coaster drop.

I hate it when people use sex as a weapon against the people who are engaging in it. It's so hypocritical.

We all struggle with our failure to communicate and our failure to reach beyond fear to love people.

Once you've found something you know how to do, it makes you feel you don't have to be intimidated by someone.

Acting is doing, because everything you say or do is some kind of an action, some kind of a verb. You're always connected to the other person through some kind of action.

Acting is what happens on the way.

Being is like pretending.

I always feel I can play a role - just give me the time to do the preparation and I'll be it.

I assume that if people get to know me, they'll like me. If they don't, it's not my problem.

I could have seen myself going into academia, but I don't love it; I just like it.

I had been looking for a New York apartment, but I said, Why not give LA a go?

I have learned to pare down what I do and still be effective and strong in a role.

I hope that doing truthful portrayals of people in a variety of circumstances gives people a kind of subterranean link to those characters.

I take the responsibility of choosing seriously because it becomes an indelible part of your body of work. Something has to sing to me.