Mira Sorvino

Acting is doing, because everything you say or do is some kind of an action, some kind of a verb. You're always connected to the other person through some kind of action.

It's the relationships between people that are more important than the sort of far away fantasies of what the good life is, the world of supermodels and Bud ads.

Acting is what happens on the way.

Being is like pretending.

I always feel I can play a role - just give me the time to do the preparation and I'll be it.

I assume that if people get to know me, they'll like me. If they don't, it's not my problem.

I could have seen myself going into academia, but I don't love it; I just like it.

I had been looking for a New York apartment, but I said, Why not give LA a go?

I had started off, before I ever got an acting job, working at Robert De Niro's Tribeca Productions as a reader. I was always interested in that side of the camera.

I hate it when people use sex as a weapon against the people who are engaging in it. It's so hypocritical.

I have a hard time getting motivated to do something that seems like a career move. I've gotten into vague trouble with my agents for turning down work that I thought was exploitative.

I had a Christian upbringing - it was all about sin and guilt. I was very happy just kissing people. I was like the make-out queen - not even second base.

I hope that doing truthful portrayals of people in a variety of circumstances gives people a kind of subterranean link to those characters.

I take the responsibility of choosing seriously because it becomes an indelible part of your body of work. Something has to sing to me.

I try to become more humble and more myself with every year. There was a while when I got famous where I was so confused and my head was spinning.

I want my life to effect the balance to the positive.

I wanted to do something far from my intellectual and physical home, so I went to live in Beijing for eight months and took Mandarin Chinese.

I'll talk to myself out loud a lot.

I'm doing things that are more artistic again, more close to the material that I love. I don't disparage those things that I did. They're just not as much reflective of who I am.

My father taught me how to substitute realities.

My major in college was Chinese Studies. It was very intentional.

Now that I've got some films under my belt, I have the courage of my convictions regarding acting. It gives me a leg to stand on.