I did a commercial for a phone company when I was five. But my first big thing was when I was eight. I was on the first season of 'E.R.'
I can't do the same thing every night, the same gestures... it's like putting on dirty panties every day.
It's sort of the most important thing for acting, is to listen to the person you're dealing with.
Fame is a very confusing thing, because you are recognized by a lot of people that you've never seen before, and they're at a great advantage.
I think knowing where you can generally fit is important, but the fun thing about being an actor is sometimes stretching beyond that stereotype and stretching beyond the box that people put you in.
For me, the other thing is not just a strong sense of spirituality.
The fact that I was a believer, a Christian, everybody immediately thought this guy's a minister, he's so nice and, oh by the way, he can play a little bit. The other thing for me is being undersized. What a great story, what an overachiever, kind of like Rudy.
The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely.
Unless you have a long-running series, most actors just go job to job if you're lucky to keep working. You just do a movie or a play or a TV thing, and it's over at some point.
It's a weird thing because I've been single at the time when I've been successful. That's good and bad. Good, because you meet lots of people, bad because your privacy is infringed, so it's harder to develop things.
If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the thing is cats.
The craziest thing I've ever done to get a guy's attention? I admit I stalked someone. I showed up at a restaurant where I knew the guy worked, and we were actually good friends and had lost touch, and I pretended that I didn't know he worked there.
Butterfly was certainly a vehicle for me, and if it died, it still would have served its purpose, in spades. We never expected it to give me the visibility it has given me. It was just a small thing as a vehicle, and suddenly the whole world knew about it.
The thing about hip-hop today is it's smart, it's insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.
Getting married and settling down isn't the most important thing in my life.
I just thought that I had had my fill for a while and wanted to have a family. My husband was moving to Chicago for his job. And so I went along. And it was a great thing that I did.
Well, the tough thing for them is that the Republican primary is pretty far over to the right, just as the Democratic primary is further over to the left than the average voter in each party.
The concept of God in America is very different than it is in England. Because we see the horrendous outcome of religion as being an American thing, in which the name of God has been hijacked by a gang of psychopaths and bullies and homophobes, and the name of God has been used for their own twisted agendas.
For me, the relationship with my father is the most important thing that I have.
And a third thing is the understanding of the Church as a community, a communion which is just a hierarchy but the people of God, whose servants are the priests and bishops.
All we can hope for is that the thing is going to slowly and imperceptibly shift. All I can say is that 50 years ago there were no such thing as environmental policies.
My father said, If you want to do acting, you have to be successful, which is a silly thing to say.
I think if I could have a boyfriend like my brothers I'd be really happy. But without the brother thing.
I would love to sit at home all day and play with my kids. It's my favorite thing to do in my time off.
To me rites of passage through life, that's a wonderful, beautiful thing.
I think it's a terrible thing to write and not enjoy it. It's a sad thing. But of course a lot of people do work because they need to eat. And we all need to eat, but that's not the only reason to work. You couldn't have paid me not to write.
The first thing a writer needs to know is what kind of writer he/she is.
The biggest thing I want to see is that people have the drive to succeed. If they can 'take it or leave it,' I don't do business with them. I enjoy mentoring. I like people who want to learn.
Listen, a cable series is a beautiful thing because there's such amazing writing happening on television, and it's a schedule that allows you to do a play or two. There's a reason everybody wants that job!
I got a telegraph from my mother who said that my step-father had had a heart attack, come home and earn a living. So I went back to England and the only thing I knew to earn any cash was through hairdressing.
There is one good thing about Marx: he was not a Keynesian.
The worst thing is always thinking of titles for records, with some reason behind them, and she just came out with the word, which she thought was a good word, a hard word, and since then we've sort of attached loads of meaning to it.
One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty counsels. The thing to do is to supply light and not heat.
The pirating thing is bad. The people it hurts the most are the ones you least think it hurts. It's not the big Britney Spears albums that are being pirated; it's the indie bands that don't have two cents to their name.
If you learn one thing from having lived through decades of changing views, it is that all predictions are necessarily false.
People expect you to change when you become a mother, and of course my priorities changed when I had Violet. She's number one in my life and the best thing that ever happened to me, but I still have fun. I am still myself, but that is made out to seem like I am rebelling against motherhood.
