"The first mistake in public business is the going into it."

"Life's Tragedy is that we get old to soon and wise too late."

"Energy and persistence conquer all things."

"Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody."

"I don't mind a little Sturm und Drang. When I was doing 'Riding in Cars With Boys,' I wouldn't smile at anybody, because my character, Bev, was angry at the world. I'm the opposite. Inside my head I'd be like, God, I'll explain to you at the end of shooting that I'm not this person."

"A woman can look both moral and exciting... if she also looks as if it was quite a struggle."

"If a policy is wrongheaded, feckless and corrupt, I take it personally and consider it a moral obligation to sound off and not shut up until it's fixed."

"I don't act in the way other actresses act, in terms of building or creating a character. I don't transform myself into the role, I invest myself in the role."