I`ve made mistakes, and I know why I made them, but I made that choice. Nobody`s ever made a choice for me.

Does age matter? Time doesn`t matter.

I don`t like guys who will lie down and take it. I want someone who`ll fight back. I like people who can argue well.

Women are like ovens. We need 5 to 15 minutes to heat up.

Great acting may be a turn-on, but it won`t make me fantasize about the person for a week.

The joke or the pratfall is easy for me to do.

I can install toilets. I know all about the wax ring. I can tile floors. I`m learning how to do basic wiring.

After a while, you have no idea how old you are because you`ve lied so many times.

Don`t corral me, and I`ll always come home. Just let me go out and play during the day.

Everyone does things for love.

I love raw cookie dough, right out of the tube. The other thing I eat is marshmallow fluff.

I have an expensive hobby: buying homes, redoing them, tearing them down and building them up the way they want to be built. I want to be an architect.

There`s something sexy about a gut. Not a 400-pound beer gut, but a little paunch. I love that.

I have a thing for red-haired Irish boys, as we know.

Falling in love-you should go with it, regardless of whether or not your heart gets smashed. You`ll be a better person.

No one has ever bought me underwear, and I`m a little bummed about that. Maybe it`s not such a big deal any more.

Makeup is scary. When I do it myself, it`s just mascara, and sometimes I forget even to do that.

I was a brownie for a day. My mom made me stop. She didn`t want me to conform.

Why is it that when we get older, we get more fearful?

I basically became a cheerleader because I had a very strict mom. That was my way of being a bad girl.

I`ve done all my tricks. I`m tired of myself.

I have these big piano-playing hands. I feel like I should be picking potatoes.

I think every human being has a level of melancholy in life and in general.

I`ve lived next door to people all my life. I don`t know how cute they think I am.

My first review for the TV movie The Bionic Showdown said I was as interesting as a bus ride.

Everyone told me to pass on Speed because it was a `bus movie.`

I`ve been in enough films where the studio wanted that extra little cuteness to make it sellable.

Free is the best. Anything free is good.

I`m a true believer in karma. You get what you give, whether it`s bad or good.

On Speed 2: That was a mistake, but in retrospect how are you supposed to know?

Why do you need one? I don`t understand why there needs to be a love interest to make women go see a film. I think society sort of makes us feel that way - that if you don`t have a guy, you`re worthless.

Movie sex scenes are never romantic, and you`re never swept off your feet. It`s always very technical....I`m counting the beats: Okay, we`re supposed to kiss for two beats, then I say my line, then they want another kiss for four beats. I`m going, One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three and break. It`s like choreography. Sometimes you have actors who feel it`s their job to get as far down into your throat as possible. You`re like, Excuse me, I like you, but not that much.

"If I`m blessed with that, I hope I am the best version of me that I can possibly be." - on motherhood to People Magazine.

"My goal now is to remember every place I`ve been, only do things I love and not say yes when I don`t mean it." quoted in WOMAN`S WORLD (7-5-05)

I don`t think there`s ever what could be called a `chilled state` in my head.

I don`t like to talk about personal things. ... And by keeping it private, you have a better shot at a healthy relationship. I learned at a young age that there are certain things you just don`t talk about.

The first Miss Congeniality (2000) gave me the chance to do broad comedy that had nothing to do with being the romantic interest. The girl-next-door thing went away with that film and I tend to do characters that I want to be more like. In the beginning, though, I was sort of the `action girl`. And then with While You Were Sleeping (1995), I was the romantic-comedy girl. But when I took time off, I thought, `There`s something I`m missing here.` I literally had to start from scratch.

I`d rather take risks than make something that`s cookie cutter.

"Everyone told me to pass on Speed (1994/I) because it was a `bus movie`".

"The Acadamy Awards shouldn`t even nominate Meryl Streep anymore. She should just be given an award every year. There should just be the Meryl Streep category".

I have no desire to maintain a lifestyle. I am a horrible celebrity. If I am out in public I dress like a pig.

Fame means when your computer modem is broken, the repair guy comes out to your house a little faster.

The only reason I haven`t married yet, is because I take it too seriously.

"I remember sitting down in Joel Silver`s office and Joel going, "Do you want to do this film?". I remember going, "I would like to do it, but I would love to talk about the character, and it was almost like I had said the biggest joke".

I`ve learned that success comes in a very prickly package. Whether you choose to accept it or not is up to you. It`s what you choose to do with it, the people you choose to surround yourself with. Always choose people that are better than you. Always choose people that challenge you and are smarter than you. Always be the student. Once you find yourself to be the teacher, you`ve lost it.

(on marital plans) "I`ve always been very sceptical about marriage, because I only want to do it once; I want to do it the right way."