The first day of shooting, you always want to turn around and go home and say, What was I thinking?!, and put your head under a pillow and weep. I could maybe go five weeks, and then the nerves would set in about when the next job was going to happen.

To me, being an actor is the best job in the land, next to being a mother and having a family and a husband. I just think it's the realization of, Hey, this is the greatest situation in the world.

It took a very long time to really enjoy an audition, and to get in the room and do the best that I can. I've just been deeply grateful for my career, and that the love for the work and the characters is alive still. I try to let go of the armor as much as possible and not be afraid.

My basic thought about actors, and I would say this to my students - I love to teach, but I haven't in awhile because I've been fortunate enough to be working - that, If this is the work you love, there is work for you. That's how the world works. That's the attitude you have to go in there with. You just have to know that it's coming.

I can say that I am, by nature, optimistic.

I have to say my background was mostly theatre, which I love, and it took a long time to feel comfortable there. That's probably true of anyone's career.

It's a question of dropping the armor and getting up and doing the work you want to do. And film at first is frightening because you are like, 'What's that camera doing?' But then it becomes family and therefore a really wonderful experience.

TV is terrific. It's really fast paced which I find difficult.

The great thing about an independent film is that you're too busy working, and you're too busy hoping to God to get it done.

I love the roles that I'm having the chance to play, and I've learned to just let go a little. Children teach you that, every day. Life is large, so do the best you can and move on. Do everything you can in a given day, and then let it go.

I think women are used to stepping up and getting the job done when you need to.

I always felt like a successful actor when I got a job.

At some point you realize, I have dreams. I would love to be working on wonderful roles, in wonderful films, with people I respect and admire. And that will come in its time. In the meantime, Pay attention to your work. Get better at what you do. That's my job.

Life gets more interesting as it goes on. It becomes fuller because there is perspective there.

The work for the actor is always the same. We're looking for a human being. We're looking for believable human behavior.

Damon Lindelof is hypnotizing. His imagination is without limits, and Tom Perrotta, as well. You begin to just trust, completely, where the story is going, knowing that you're entirely safe in the truthfulness of it.

The lovely thing is that now being offered things is just a blast. In the beginning, I'd be offered something and be like, What? What do you mean? Are they sure? And now, I have less shock about it. It's just a real pleasure. It's a privilege.

I guess getting older has its benefits, one of them being perspective.