Obviously, it wasn't meant for me to die of cancer at 40. Every day my life surprises me, just like my cancer diagnosis surprised me. But you roll with it. That's our job as humans.
The common misconception is that as an actress you have to learn what you're doing. No, you just have to make the audience think you've learned it.
I've never been all that interested or aware of what people are thinking about me or saying about me. I think that has kept me safest and sanest.
I've also learned to no longer feel guilty if I'm invited out and don't want to go. If I start to say to myself, 'What's wrong with you that you're staying in five nights in a row to watch 'Forensic Files' instead of going out with your friends' I remind myself that it's what I need to do for myself at that point.
I don't have examples in my life of people who are all good or bad; I have deeply loved many people who are both, and I relate to those kinds of people on a far greater level.
The world gets very small after a while, if you stick around long enough.
There's a little good and bad in everyone. Everybody I've ever loved is very complicated.
But I've always been hard to cast, I've never been an ingenue, I've never been the romantic lead. I'm an actor; give me the script and I do what I do and hope it's good.
One of the ways I think I gain fodder for characters is by watching people.
I sort of love reading the scripts and going, 'Oh wow, what a great idea. I never would have thought of that.
I was a young kid from Long Island who wanted to do something large with her life, so I can relate to that.
Throughout my career I've played a lot of parts that might've been played by a man. They're human roles rather than specifically men or women. I've never been as hooked into that as a lot of women are, you know, like, 'There aren't enough roles for women.' There aren't necessarily a lot of good roles for anybody.
I don't watch a lot of television.
All I ever wanted to do was act. And pay my bills
As a single mom, I'm juggling a lot and working long hours. Yes, it costs them a little, but what my children get in return is a mother who is energized and content.
I wanted to act; that was my one goal. I wanted to devote all my time to acting and not waitressing or anything else.
Writers, actors, anybody working on an ensemble-type thing, there are going to be some creaks in the beginning. It seems like there's tremendous potential in just letting things sort of breathe a little bit. It's tremendously important.
I grew up as a tomboy. I was always barefoot, running races with the guys on the block, climbing trees, and beating kids up.
I actually washed my window once, and it fell through - it was being held together by the dirt.
I'm just not one of those people who thought having biological children was that important, to me it was more about wanting to raise a child.
I really am profoundly grateful just in general in my life. I've had an embarrassing amount of good fortune.
I have this dog named Marley, and it is a kind of love I had never known. I have a hard time believing Marley did not come from my body. I know that sounds insane, but I feel that connected to her. She made me realize I wanted to adopt children.
I never really wanted kids. I didn't not want them, but motherhood just wasn't something that pulled at me.
I love to hand sew. I sometimes make clothing for my children, which of course they grow out of in a matter of minutes. I thoroughly love it.
It's hard to notice things without people noticing me and that takes some getting used to.
