Inspiration is the key to everything.

If I have to draw attention away from some hormone-induced acne on my chin, I put on a lot of mascara.

I went to a very progressive elementary school where I was heavily educated in civil rights. I remember learning about Harvey Milk when I was in sixth or seventh grade and being so inspired.

I got an internship with the casting director of The Girl Next Door. I would hold the clipboard and help them in their casting sessions and get them lunch.

I've thought for a long time that my body type would have worked well in the '70s. The idea that you could be a broad-shouldered, small-breasted woman and still wear really great outfits.

When you're a working actor and you're happy to be one, you can't focus all your energy on acting because you will go crazy. You have to focus as much energy as you can away from yourself.

Many casting directors won't hire aspiring actors because you might be burning some chick's headshot under the table so she doesn't get the part.

All actors should experience public failure.

I don't own a scale, and Tao banned the word 'fat' from our house. If we eat too much, we say, 'I feel clogged up.'

In 2012, I see the potential for people to come together, huge moments of political and social engagement where elections are part of the strategy for change, but not the end goal and not the only thing that matters.

I'm proud to have played characters who've inspired people to live out loud, and I'm lucky to have reached an audience that's been incredibly enthusiastic and supportive.

I'm opening up my heart to the idea of dating. It's funny - my friends would always come to me for romantic advice. I know nothing, and things have changed since I was dating in high school! I'm really trying hard to spend this time working on myself.

It's interesting having a son. Someone told me that it's good when you have a son first because when you have a daughter first and then a son, you think your son's slow. A lot of parents freak out because they've seen a daughter progress so quickly, and they think their male child is, like, damaged. But boys are just naturally slow.

When I was 28, I made this film called 'Drinking Buddies' that I starred in and produced, and we improvised the entire thing, and it was a complete exercise in freedom of expression in making something for only the purpose of making it, not for recognition or money or anything else, and it's still my favorite thing I've ever done.

It would be so depressing to be a model and not get to say a word. There's no personality involved.

Early on, I knew I had ideas, but I wasn't sure when it was appropriate to bring them to the table, and I was so intimidated by these titans that I was working for. But it started around the time of 'Tron,' when I was really excited by the creative process and the prep that went into that. I spoke up often at those writing sessions.

What happens so often as an actor is that you retain the information about the scenes that you yourself shot and you obsess over certain scenes that you found the most challenging or interesting. The rest of the film kind of falls away in your memory or it fades a little bit.

I was a handful growing up.

Now I'm doing a film festival for kids and writing a script about a kidnapped journalist in Afghanistan.

Once I took a bus from my home in Maryland to Philadelphia to live on the streets with some musicians for a few weeks, and then my parents sent me to boarding school at Andover to shape me up.

I'm now convinced that I'm a doctor. I mean, if someone says they have a pain, I'm like, 'Well, that's your spleen.'

I was a tomboy and I didn't have a bunch of brothers but I always wanted them and so I sort of adopted a few of my great friends to be my brother.

I feel like the luckiest child in the world because I got to grow up in Ireland. In summer is when you really grow up. During the year, I would go back to the States, and all year long really couldn't wait to get back to Ardmore.

I'm a natural blonde, but I feel like a brunette.

I grew up being told by my parents each time they went off to war that they may explode, so I needed to know how things like the gadgets in the kitchen worked.

I used to play hooky from school so I could watch cooking shows.

I wanted to be on 'Saturday Night Live' since I was ten.

When I first did theatre, I was always doing comedies; it was always my first love. But it wasn't what I was picked for at first, for films and TV.

Oh God, to think that you only fall in love once in your entire life is such a depressing thought.

Weakness is something we don't like to admit we have. We hold it against people, until we experience it, and then we feel more compassion for it.

It's really kind of a luxury for an actor to have the opportunity to show such different types of characters. I actually left 'Cowboys & Aliens' and went straight into 'The Change-Up.' It was kind of a funny change of pace.

When I have really blonde hair, I usually go for a more natural look, wearing way less makeup.

I consider my education to be the first 10 years of my career.

In human years I am 29. In actress years I'm the ripe, promising age of 18 to 35. That's how it works here in Hollyweird.

I love kids with a passion I usually reserve for hot cheese, miniature chairs, and Prince concerts, but I feel no stress to reproduce simply because of a fear of withering eggs.

In a relationship I'm a very loving person, emotional and sensitive.

Documentaries are a powerful and effective way of bridging the gap between worlds, breaking through to new audiences that wouldn't otherwise be engaged - in essence, not preaching to the choir.

In my work in Haiti, I've seen the hugely positive effects that happen when people come together to build something in the middle of the most desperate situations.

I do not tweeze my eyebrows. I've been letting them grow out for years. I try to fill them in wherever nature has abandoned me.

If I could play drums like Patrick Carney or Taylor Hawkins, I'd be a really happy person.

I'm still a student of fashion, but I like hooking up with the people that really know how to make cool clothes.

A good litmus test is that you should be comfortable with your significant other being present when you hang out with your friend.

I have a great pack of female friends, but I also have a lot of guy friends. I believe that platonic relationship is entirely possible.

Seeing the energy of 'SNL' made me want to be a part of it. If that was a job, I thought, that was the job I wanted. That was my plan. Comedy.

You're going to change as you grow older, and that messes up a lot of relationships.

If a woman feels anchored to a man's plans, she may start to resent him for the fun she's worried she's missing.

It's so important to have that independence. You know it yourself: Everyone needs evenings of their own.

I tend to go with a daytime look, pretty natural, but I always fill in my eyebrows - I hate if I leave the gym and my eyebrows aren't done; I'm just very uncomfortable with myself.

Power tends to get confused with repression.

You really just have to love the process. I can't tell you the amount of film sets I've been on where people are talking about Oscars in the middle of the production. It happens all the time.