There is no direct evidence, so how could you ask me to believe in God.

I have a certain curiosity for life that drives me and propels me forward.

I have, in some ways, saved characters that have been marginalized by society by playing them - and having them still have dignity and still survive, still get through it.

I was never the ingenue or the pretty girlfriend of Tom Cruise in a movie. I didn't have that career, so I don't have to compete on that level.

I saw leaving college as an opportunity to do something different with my life. I always thought that becoming an academic was going to be my path.

But the reason I became, why I wanted to be in the business was because there was Midnight Cowboy.

I make movies about people in spiritual crisis because it's a way for me to spend the time, the energy, the focus and the obsession to come to terms with my own spiritual crisis.

People are always surprised when I say that I'm an atheist.

I was a literature major in college and that was my thing, books.

What do I do to live? What do I do to be vital? The answer is always creativity; the answer is always art.

You hold all of our futures in your hands. So you better make it good.

I'd like to be Dakota Fanning when I get young.

Cruelty might be very human and very cultural, but it is not acceptable and it is not an option.

People say as a woman actor your career is over at 40. But then they told me I would never work again after I was 16.

It's very hard for me to get a new car. It's really hard for me to get a new house. It's really hard for me to move on from the things that give me stability.

I've always had this idea that I wanted movies to make people better not worse.

I'm a technician. I don't go for the get-into-the-role stuff. I read the lines and play the scenes.

I think an artist's responsibility is more complex than people realize.

Knowing what paint a painter uses or having an understanding of where he was in the history of where he came from doesn't hurt your appreciation of the painting.