The audience doesn't come to see you, they come to see themselves.

I was the kid who read a lot and who was academic, and who was more of an indoor person than an outdoor person. I would win the summer reading contest at the library.

I'm not supposed to communicate something that's completely unrealistic.

When you become a parent, you finally appreciate and understand what your mother did.

I've heard it said that winning an Oscar means you live five years longer. If that's true I want to thank the academy because my husband is younger than me.

I'm older than I was before when I was young.

People think that the directors direct actors. No. Really, what the director's doing is directing the audience's eye through the film.

Life is full of compromises, and whether or not you're willing to negotiate.

We impose order and narrative on everything in order to understand it. Otherwise, there's nothing but chaos.

What gives you pleasure and joy? Let those be the things that lead you forward in life.

Loving someone is giving them the power to break your heart, but trusting them not to.

Art is an expression of who we are, what we believe, and what we dream about.

Marriage equality is about more than just marriage. It's about something greater. It's about acceptance.

Yet there's a hunger in me still. I'm like only beginning. I feel like I still have so much to learn.

Of course you want your son, your children, to be proud of you.

I do this because I'm an observer of people. That's why I want to be an actor. I'm fascinated by human beings and the circumstances they find themselves in.