They say life`s what happens when you`re busy making other plans. But sometimes in New York, life is what happens when you`re waiting for a table.

When it comes to life and love, why do we believe our worst reviews?

Balls are to men what purses are to women.

Celebrity and the media are reliant on each other - always have been - but we have lost the elegance in that relationship, somehow.

It`s like the riddle of the Sphinx... why are there so many great unmarried women, and no great unmarried men?

Maybe our mistakes are what make our fate.

In a relationship, when does the art of compromise become compromising?

Thank you. I`ve never won anything in my life. - on winning her 2000 Golden Globe Award for "Sex and the City" (1998)

Can you really forgive if you can`t forget?

I get the feeling people are disappointed with me because I don`t have the answers for them. I have to remind them that I don`t have a Ph.D. in sex or counseling. Regarding her new Steve & Barry line of affordable conservative womenswear: There`s not going to be any inappropriate midriff showing, regardless of your age. I really don`t care for it. I feel like, as a culture, we have seen enough damage done by it. It`s provocative in a way that I just don`t feel comfortable with."

After all, computers crash, people die, relationships fall apart. The best we can do is breath and reboot.

If two people have only one thought between them, something is very wrong.

I like my money right where I can see it... hanging in my closet.

Men who are too good looking are never good in bed because they never had to be.

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.

I write about sex, not love. What do I know about love?

Every once in awhile, a girl has to indulge herself.

As a woman, I have an inherent need to be all things to all people, to make certain everybody`s taken care of. I know I can`t sustain that level all the time, so I`m finding the proper balance and it`s made me infinitely happier.

Do we need distance to get close?

When men attempt bold gestures, generally it`s considered romantic. When women do it, it`s often considered desperate or psycho.

I tell my friends married life is boring, but that`s just a fun thing to say to make single people feel better.

[On the fact that she adored every costume of Carrie Bradshaw`s on "Sex and the City" (1998).] The hits and misses. It was great fun to make mistakes and also be victorious. If I have a daughter, perhaps I`ll give the clothes to her and tell her the extraordinary circumstances under which I received them. (Harper`s Bazaar - 2004 - "Sarah Jessica`s Next Step" by Wendy Wasserstein)

I kind of enjoy the idea that you can be a lady and be slightly titillating and you don`t have to take all your clothes off. (Vogue - August 2003 - "The Busiest Girl In Town" by Steven Meisel)

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.

Can you make a mistake and miss your fate?

You can`t be friends with a squirrel! A squirrel is just a rat with a cuter outfit.

I know that he Matthew Broderick doesn`t have his laundry done, and that he hasn`t had a hot meal in days. That stuff weighs on my mind.

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.

I`m very, very concerned about the Bush presidency. I`m worried about the kinds of cuts in domestic programs that mean something to a lot of people, including members of my family, who depend on certain things from the government.

I don`t believe in email. I`m an old-fashioned girl. I prefer calling and hanging up.

To be in a couple, do you have to put your single self on a shelf?

So many roads. So many detours. So many choices. So many mistakes.

A squirrel is just a rat with a cuter outfit!

When real people fall down in life, they get right back up and keep walking.

I still want to be an actor for hire, but I can also see myself as a hard-driving producer. A person can have both, and I don`t think you have to be male to do that. I understand why a lot of actresses are producing now; I understand how seductive it is and how hard it is not to have control. It`s like if you were keeping kosher and then one day you had... bacon! You`d just be like: This is nuts! I can`t never have suckling pig! I have to have it! Or if you flew coach all the time and then one day you got on, like, Cathay Pacific First Class, where there`s a whole apartment on the plane that`s yours? You couldn`t possibly go back to coach! You`re ruined! [On becoming a producer of "Sex and the City" (1998), in which she stars.] (Vogue - August 2003 - "The Busiest Girl In Town" by Steven Meisel)

Sarah Jessica is fine, Sarah, SJP, SJ, hey you, anything. [on how to address her]

I don`t judge others. I say if you feel good with what you`re doing, let your freak flag fly.

Pat knows the historical context of clothes, the periods of costumes and what century is what. But there are no rules with Pat when it comes to fashion. It`s liberating. [On working with fashion designer and costumer Patricia Field on "Sex and the City" (1998).] (Harper`s Bazaar - 2004 - "Sarah Jessica`s Next Step" by Wendy Wasserstein)

Are we simply romantically challenged, or are we sluts?