Elektra is larger than life and wears her sexuality on her sleeve. So I was wearing clothes that were 100 per cent sexy. And just giving in to that.

I think that it`s not as crazily different, my job, from anyone else`s, as people let themselves believe. I think people get wrapped up in their own idea of what it is, but it`s really not that.

And now, I still really don`t care that much but now I have music playing all the time at home, which is a first for me. Whatever. Everything from Ani DiFranco to Dave Matthews to Jack Johnson and Norah Jones.

I don`t have this fantasy about marriage anymore. Everyone says it takes hard work. Well, it kind of does - and I`m much more pragmatic about romance than I used to be.

I love being physical and acting at the same time.

And you can`t hide in a comedy scene either. You have to give in to the scene and commit.

My big sister Melissa, is such a stud and my little sister Suzanna, has always had a perfect body and big blue eyes. We were a force.

I`m still really close with everyone at home and their parents - and their brothers and sisters. I was so, so, so lucky to grow up as part of a community and I don`t take that for granted. I try very hard to stay part of it.

Well, you can`t be trying to achieve success of any kind in this business without accepting that there`s going to be a flip side to it.

I knew we were going to marry someday, but I was absolutely surprised when he actually proposed. And surprised he had bought a ring. I ran around the yard screaming.

I would roll up pennies to take the subway to work in Times Square. I was broke, but I was happy.

I was a ballet dancer and that kind of bled into musical theater. I was constantly in rehearsal for one thing or another.

To become a classical ballerina, you have to move to New York when you`re 12 or 11 and that becomes your life. I just wanted to be good in my company in Charleston and I wanted it to always be part of my life.

[opn winning a Golden Globe] My husband was as flabbergasted as I was. I think he almost flew out of his skin, he was so surprised and excited. He is just the most supportive and proud friend. My family is just beyond out-of-control excited.

Beauty comes from a life well lived. If you`ve lived well, your smile lines are in the right places, and your frown lines aren`t too bad, what more do you need?

I think that baseball games are like soap operas. If you watch five in a row, you know enough to get hooked.

[quoted in Playboy, 4/02] There`s something so interesting about the combination of vulnerability and being completely in control at the same time. Women should run everything - it`s about time.

Two of my mom`s most oft-repeated mom-isms are: "Happiness is your own responsibility" and "Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning." Both are true.

[on winning a Golden Globe] My husband was as flabbergasted as I was. I think he almost flew out of his skin, he was so surprised and excited. He is just the most supportive and proud friend. My family is just beyond out-of-control excited.

[on being recognized] I never get recognized! I`ll be with my husband [actor Scott Foley from "Felicity" (1998)] and people will think I`m his manager, and they`ll start giving me their business cards.

(On having her ears pierced in 2006 for her Oscars earrings) "A couple of months before the ceremony, I went to pick out the jewelry I`d be wearing on the night. I picked out the diamond cuff and the hair clip, and then they showed me the most gorgeous pair of earrings I`d ever seen. It wasn`t until I came to try them on that I realized they`d forgotten I didn`t have pierced ears. They could see how much I loved them, and how disappointed I was that I couldn`t wear them, so they said that, if I really wanted to, they could pierce my ears for me there and then. That would give them enough time to heal before the ceremony, and I could then wear the earrings. And I really did want to wear those earrings, so I said `OK`, and they pierced my ears for me before I left the boutique. It felt a bit odd to have them done, although I did have them pierced for a couple of weeks a few years back for a movie I was in, but it was worth it because I knew it meant I`d be wearing those fabulous earrings to the ceremony."