Jean Smart

This is going to sound terrible, but once I moved to New York, I never did a civilian job. I was extraordinarily lucky.

If it's a drama or comedy, it doesn't matter to me. I just want to like the writing.

I love doing drama as much as I love doing comedy.

We are all a lot more attracted to someone who finds us incredibly attractive. It's very flattering. It feels good.

Unfortunately, a lot of kids don't read anymore. I don't know what we can do about that.

I'm hoping to have a huge future in voice-overs. For years, people have said, 'I recognized your voice before I recognized your face!'

When you do a half-hour show, there's only so much you can do. At best, you're going to get a character with two-and-a-half dimensions.

I didn't become an actor for the money, so I can't stay with a job for that reason. I did too many years of theater where you just get by from month to month, happily, to make that a priority.

'24' was so much fun. That was one of my all-time favourite jobs.

To me, pause is sometimes the most important, most effective moment in a film or play or anything.

My father was my hero. I can't say enough about him and everything he did for me and my family.

I was always snobby about soap operas, and commercials, too, but one does have to eat. I remember auditioning for a commercial for a mouthwash or chewing gum or something, and I had to pretend to be the back end of somebody in a horse costume. After that, I said, 'That's it. That's it. You've sunk too far!'

I quit smoking the day I found out I was pregnant, which was nine years ago. But I'll still smoke in a movie. I have other vices, you know, like potato chips and chardonnay - but not together.

The networks have to answer to their sponsors. That's the difficult thing you learn.

Unless I have to, I can't take a job for the money. Unless my children are going to be out on the street, I have to be a little bit picky.

I think any woman who has lost a child and certainly lost more than one child, there's going to be a part of them that they keep closed off forever.

It makes a huge difference in how you feel, the way your costume holds you. When you look at yourself in the mirror, it makes you feel a certain way. Actors like to talk a lot about working from the inside out, but there's a lot to be said also about working from the outside in. It can be extremely helpful.

It's fun to do accents; it's fun to do different periods - that's why you become an actor. Because it's fun to be a storyteller and play make-believe.

Personally, I think life offers us the opportunity to take chances and make changes all the time.

I think that people get to a certain point in their life and they think that nothing can change.

We all fantasize about a relationship we'd like to do over or something we'd like to change about our past. I think there are a lot more opportunities for second chances in our lives than we think.

Lately, I just let myself eat it more because I think, 'Oh, my God, a piece of cheese tastes so good'. I think it's your body telling you something.

I've never met a woman ever, anywhere, bar none, that was more feminine than Dixie Carter.

You know as far as diet goes, for a while I was really obsessed with counting fat grams along with the rest of the world.