I've always had to force myself to make friends and speak to people. My parents were quiet, and it took me a while to get used to the fact that people talk about their feelings, their problems.

I've been offered a couple of shows that have been very successful, but they weren't right for me. It has to be something I could be excited about for a long time.

I've made choices that work with my family. I want to work and I want to be with my family so I just walk the tight-rope of showing up for both those things.

I've worked for a long time, but I got to the point where I felt like, I am out here so far, how do I get back? I want to have a real life, a personal life. I didn't want a personal life I just visited.

Movie acting is a great job for your twenties: You travel all over, you have affairs with people, and you throw yourself into one part and then another. It gets more challenging as you get older, and it's not just having a daughter, it's wanting to have your own life and be yourself.

The best movies have one sentence that they're exploring, a thesis, something that people can argue about over dinner afterward.

We all feel disabled in some way. We all feel imperfect. It's hard to be looked at for various reasons.

It's getting too late in my life to care about the small things. It's getting too late to not be brave, to not live my life fully, to not try to be an artist. Trivial things like how nice your hotel room is, or if you have to be naked for a while, they fade away.

I loved Julia Louis-Dreyfus's show 'The New Adventures of Old Christine.' That made me laugh out loud. She's like Lucille Ball. She's brilliant.

I think that all of us are 5-year-olds and we don't want to be embarrassed in the schoolyard.

I know for me the subject of how to be in a relationship is precious and complicated and challenging.

I think I have more of a director's brain than an actor's brain, in a way.

I usually don't read things written about me and I certainly don't read things if they are inappropriate.

I wanted to have a personal life that I fully inhabited, not because I am such a great mom, but for me.

I worked before I had my daughter, enough for three actresses.

It's very healing to me to be a very present mother. I hope that it's also good for her. But it's definitely good for me.

The Oscar sits on some shelf above my desk. If there was an earthquake, I could actually be killed by my own Academy Award.

When you first entered the restaurant, I thought you were handsome... and then, of course, you spoke.

You either have a baby, want a baby, or don't want a baby, but you don't nothing a baby if you're in your 30s or 40s.

You have five seconds to enjoy it and then you remember who you didn't thank.