"I look my best after an entire hair and makeup team has spent hours perfecting me. When do I feel my best? When I haven't looked in a mirror for days, and I'm doing things that make me happy."
"Kindness is really important to me in finding my own prince - so are patience and a sense of humor. Without those qualities he's no Prince Charming!"
I really don't drink, I don't do drugs. I feel like right now I've been given so many opportunities I don't want to mess it up with those things ... I think I was raised in a solidly upper-middle class family who had really strong values and excess was not one of the things that my family put up with. - On avoiding the hard partying young-star life style
She is just divine. As a human being, she has basically accomplished everything that I want to do ... It's not that she just gets inside the character, she's just absolutely at the center of all of her choices, of the truth of the character. - On working with Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada.
She can act sweet, but she's fundamentally a predator. - On her character Lureen in Brokeback Mountain.
In Hollywood you have to be careful if you go above a six, then you're considered fat. I'm considered to be, I hope, an actress, and you can get away with a couple of extra pounds if you are trading on your talent instead of your sex appeal.I don't have time to be tortured about me weight.
Over the last few years I've learned that the Next Big Thing is something a lot of people wish and want for you - but what you wish for yourself is really important too.
"College is such a unique time because you're learning a little bit how to be an adult. You're learning how to take care of yourself without parental influence, and you're exposed to so many great minds. I feel like I didn't even know how to think until I got to college." - On the importance of a college education.
"I've worked with people and I've known people that were really competitive but I've always said that I take an Elizabeth Bennett philosophy of life - I laugh. I love my job but if it means hurting someone I won't do it."
"I'm more proud of that film than anything I have created." - on Brokeback Mountain.
"I got into this business to be an actress, to scare myself, and force myself into a place outside of my comfort zone. I have nothing against The Princess Diaries - but it has been a brick wall at times for my career."
I disagree with a couple of the stances of the Catholic Church. My older brother is gay and it's important for me to be able to love him completely and freely and it's important for me to spread beliefs in the world that are not going to limit people in their love. I can't support a religion that doesn't support my brother.
"Films are letting me get older, which is really nice, because there was always this fear of what happens when I stop being a teenager. But for everyone else, it was kind of a sharp left."
I think that fashion can be a lot of fun. I love clothes, but I recognize that it should only be a hobby. Some clothes that are more design-based look better on women with figures like wire hangers, because that's the nature of the design. I won't wear those clothes.
"I'll be honest with you, it really, really, really annoys me, the image that's put out there for women. These tiny, tiny bodies, with absolutely no fat at all on them. It's unhealthy, plain and simple, and there are only a handful of women in the world who are naturally like that. It makes me sick."
"I'm very choosy! It drives my agent nuts."
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