Reese Witherspoon
[on having a baby]: "Obviously, this isn't the time in my life that I would have chosen to do this, but I feel like life gives you these challenges for a reason. I feel so happy and glad to be in the place that I am. I really feel blessed. This is something I need to face and take control of."
[Talking about motherhood and her baby]: "I feel good, I'm proud of Election (1999) and very proud of this [her child]. It couldn't be a better time. It's always the right time when it happens. You make it the right time".
[talking about the movie business]: "The battles that we face in this business aren't financial, but they are moral. And I certainly think that the longer you can keep your values, and your morality intact, and keep your head on your shoulders about what is important at the end of the day, you can get the most out of this business and really emerge with something wonderful."
"People want to try and move you into a place where you can be easily identifiable by every woman in America - to be this very likeable woman in a romatic comedy. And it's really hard for me. I just don't see myself as the girl that everybody likes. I never have been and I don't know how to be that person."
"As far as being in the spotlight and under public scrutiny, a lot of that's about how much you put yourself out there. It's not like we go to every premiere and every celebrity function and every charity auction. We really just try to maintain our privacy and never let our public persona get out of hand."
"I'm not perfect! I'm human. I make mistakes. But I try to be as conscious as I can about things I should be. If I'm going to do something commercial and mainstream and made for the masses, I just believe you can make those kinds of films with quality - and good ideas and good intentions. There's a lot of negativity out there."
"While making Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2003), I had like 50 outfit changes. It was great! I'm real into the whole "girlie" thing, it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it".
"Attending an all-girls school has its advantages, there are no inhibitions. You can walk to school with your zit cream on and your hair in rollers and nobody cares."
"It's nice to come home to what's real." - E! "Revealed with Jules Asner" (2001).
"There's something timeless and important about making people laugh, about being the right spot in their day." - as quoted in the Dec 7, 2004 issue of Woman's World
I was thinking about why I make movies, and I know why. Life is hard. It's nice to go escape and have a good time at the movies. If I can give people a movie about hope, love and the future, then I've done my job.
I do think things were meant to happen. I'm just this little girl from Tennessee, and here I am today. I think a lot of things are just out of your hands.
[Asked about the ways she is discriminated against] "I get discriminated against in three ways: I get discriminated against because I'm blond, I get discriminated against because I'm an actress and I get discriminated against because I'm from the South."
I did. I called my attorney. My agent. My manager. I said "You know y'all, you're serious about this? I'm really.. I gotta get out of this. Like can't they call 'Leann Rimes' ? I mean she's good." - On trying to get out of the part of June Carter Cash in Walk the Line (2005).
The director came to us and he said "No, I really want you guys to learn to sing. To learn to play instruments and I want you to record an album". and that is what... and I just absolutely was just gob-smacked and I said .. "I don't know. I can't do that." And he said "Well I want you to try." Now that's the thing for me. If someone asks me to try, I will always try. - On doing her own singing in Walk the Line (2005).
"Life isn't just about you: It's about family and friends and giving back." quoted in Woman's World magazine 2-21-06
About dual careers and marriage: "Marriage and family come before everything. You don't want to make a movie at the cost of your relationship."
"I feel like there's a race being run for some unattainable goal - to be the best, the skinniest, the most beautiful. I just admit that's what I'll never be."
"What gets me is how many women - young women - give up their power and sense of self. Thinking they're going to get more out of life if they take off their clothes and objectify themselves, instead of functioning on the principle that they're smart and capable, that you can be an actress and not be on the covers of T&A magazines. I'm flabbergasted by how many legitimate actresses do that. It blows my mind."
(Part of Oscar Speech) I am so blessed to have my family here tonight. My mother and my father are here. And I just want to say thank you so much for everything, for being so proud of me. It didn't matter if I was making my bed or making a movie. They never hesitated to say how proud they were of me. And that means so very much to a child. So thank you, Mom and Dad. I want to say thank you to my wonderful husband and my two children who should be going to bed. And thank you for loving me so much and supporting me. And I want to say that, my grandmother was one of the biggest inspirations in my life. She taught me how to be a real woman to have strength and self respect, and to never give those things away. And those are a lot of qualities I saw in June Carter. People used to ask June how she was doing, and she used to say -- 'I'm just trying to matter.' And I know what she means. You know, I'm just trying to matter, and live a good life and make work that means something to somebody. And you have all made me feel that I might have accomplished that tonight. So thank you so much for this honor."
I think everyone has their own set of problems, and sometimes I feel I'm in the middle of the biggest challenge of my life just trying to maintain normalcy in a kind of crazy lifestyle.
I'm pretty conservative or old-fashion, I should say, it's how I grew up. I think you have to let your children be individuals, but you have to set boundaries. Ryan and I have similar ideas about all of it, you really have to support your partner in the things that are important to them and hold the line together.
Renee Zellweger
On Los Angeles "It opens your eyes in this town, it's amazing. It's taught me who I don't want to be."
Regarding the lifestyle of the people of Romania, she says, "I learned how little in the way of material goods we really need, and how beautiful a simple life can be. In Romania people work with their hands every day, and you'll see an 80- year-old woman still chopping wood because she's been looking after herself all her life, and she still has the strength to do it."
"It saddens me every day when people come up and say, 'OK, how did you lose that weight?' I can't speak about it because I am not an authority on weight loss. I am just not. I am not challenged with a medical situation that's weight-related and that I need to pay attention to". [On the weight she lost after Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)].
"It was very exciting for me to fill out Bridget's dresses. It felt really great. I didn't feel any different. I didn't feel uncomfortable, and I didn't feel as if it changed my life. I got such positive responses from the fellows in my life while I looked like Bridget Jones. I had a lot of friends who said I should think about keeping some of the weight on. I have to say I agreed, because there were certain things about it I liked very much. But, of course, I'm a girl, and I thought, 'Ugh, no.' Like anybody, I want to look my best."
"I see the Oscar [for best supporting actress in Cold Mountain (2003)] in my bedroom, and it's like I bought it in a souvenir shop on Hollywood Boulevard".
"My life has far exceeded what I might ever have dreamed of because I would never have been so bold as to dream that these things might happen to me."
"I wanted to be self-sufficient, I wanted to take care of myself, and I wanted to learn. I wanted to travel, I wanted to see the world and have my eyes opened. I wanted to be consistently challenged and I knew I needed to be creative in some way. When I got my job in a bar and I could pay for my tuition and go on auditions and sometimes get jobs that I loved and pay my rent, I knew that I would be all right. That's when my dreams came true, long before the telephone rang and someone said, "Come and meet Tom Cruise"".
"It's great to be a brunet. I can sneak around downtown Los Angeles and nobody knows it's me. I went to Starbucks to get my coffee in the morning, and they said, 'What's your name?' I said, 'Oh, Renee.' Nobody even looked at me twice. My friends even walk past me. It's fantastic because I feel so free again. That's why I think the old adage that blonds have more fun is a presumption!" [on dying her hair brown]
"I think we can all relate to Bridget standing in a hallway wanting to know, 'Do you love me or not?' She just blurts it out and maybe that makes her seem like she's not strong. I think she's very brave because she's speaking her mind. Ultimately, she knows that even if she doesn't get the right answer from this man, she will still get up and move forward. That's strength to me."
"What I admire most about Bridget is her ever-present optimism in the face of adversity. I love how she has romantic troubles, but she gets back up and even laughs at herself. Me? I do my best. I keep on trying, anyway."
Emotionally gaining the weight didn't affect me. In fact, I was afraid that I didn't gain enough weight. We were working six days a week, so my fear was that I'd lose a few pounds from the work, and the fluctuations in my weight would show on the screen. But they weren't noticeable. [On her weight gain in _Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)_ ].
Sarah Jessica Parker
"Thank you. I've never won anything in my life." - on winning her 2000 Golden Globe Award for "Sex and the City" (1998)
"I tell my friends married life is boring, but that's just a fun thing to say to make single people feel better."
"The hardest part of leaving the show ["Sex and the City" (1998)] was this endless gypsy-like life that I'm back into, where it's like being the new kid in school all the time, which for some people is very easy but for me is not. I don't really like change, and I would like everything to be the same constantly, except that I love being terrified."
"Celebrity and the media are reliant on each other - always have been - but we have lost the elegance in that relationship, somehow."
"Fashion is a part of my work. I feel a responsibility to be presentable, to dress up if the occasion calls for it. But, really, fashion does not play that big a role in my life these days."
"One of the things that's great about New York is that it is not a one-industry town. It has education, academia, the service industry, arts, publishing, theater, politics, fashion, finance, as well as movie-making. There are so many people who are cogs in the great wheel of the city that a less bright light is shone on our lives. It still exists - there are always paparazzi at our house - but being a public person feels less like a business than it does in LA. And you have to approach it differently. I can't hide behind gates, or in a car, but if I can get a few yards from my front door, I can still get lost in a crowd. I am always moments, just moments, from obscurity on a crowded street in New York."