I try to always stretch myself to fit the characters that have been presented..

It was also wonderful to have the prospect of playing with Jack Nicholson. It was a terrific part, a terrific script, with Alexander Payne and Jack N….

I'm very lucky to be able to do what I love to do, and I hope I can keep doing it for a while..

The Oscar changed everything. Better salary, working with better people, better projects, more exposure, less privacy..

I love everything. I love being the empathetic characters. I love being the villains. I think it's like when we're kids, we like to play all kinds of….

We all love to hear a good story. We save our stories in books. We save our books in libraries. Libraries are the storyhouses full of all those stori….

I was never an ingenue. I've always just been a character actor. When I was younger, it was a real problem, because I was never pretty enough. It was….

I'm not that conservative. I do feel - I guess I'm more of a Democrat at heart, although I've never affiliated myself with a particular party..

A heart can only discover what it really wants with experience..

You hope that the same people are coming back. I love playing with Angela [Bassett]. She's fierce. I met her years and years ago when she was a stude….

When I was in New Orleans, I was in a grocery store and a woman came up to me and she said, "Oh, my daughter's such a big fan of the show." And I sa….

I want to be defined by my own essence..

O.K., we had women's lib in the '60s, the women fought for their roles, they're out there in the work force. Now let's talk about how they're dealing….

The thing that I've run up against is that it's always been an either-or proposition, especially in Hollywood. You're either young and glamorous and ….

I want to see women onscreen the way I see them in society..

I look for a role that hopefully I feel empathy with and that I can understand and love, but also that has that challenge for me to play - a differen….

I've always tried to be honest, and it would be too difficult for me to develop some kind of persona. I don't have enough time or energy for that..

I went from years of honing my craft to sudden recognition. It was quite a life changer..

 My 14-year-old grandniece is not allowed to watch 'American Horror Story' yet..

I ran into Stephen King once in New York a few years ago and outside the Carlyle and he said, "You're in the pink." Which sounded so Stephen King. H….

My mother used to tell this corny story about how the doctor smacked me on the behind when I was born and I thought it was applause, and I have been ….