Do a sitcom. Don`t do a one hour. That was actually my advice. He was going to do a one hour. I was like, `Are you crazy? You know what people make for sitcoms and how little they work, right? You see all of our friends on sitcoms.` - Her advice for her husband, Freddie Prinze Jr..

Our bodies are machines and have to be functional, and to do that they have to be fed properly.

[on attending the Professional Children`s High School in Manhattan:] "Everybody there had a talent, and everyone was respected. If somebody didn`t like you--they didn`t talk to you! They didn`t make fun of you, punish you. You could, you know, mess around with how you dress. You really had that chance to find yourself, and I thank God for that school. I went to that school feeling amazingly untalented. That school was my lifeline. Let me tell you something--talent night at our school? There was nothing like it."

(about her father) - "Just because you donate sperm does not make you a father. I don`t have a father. I would never give him the credit or acknowledge him as my father."

I wouldn`t change Buffy for anything and I wouldn`t change the course in which she has evolved but it is nice to be able to do something that is a little different.

[On religion] "I don`t believe in organized religion and I never have."

The episodes all blend together for me, so I don`t remember. I can`t even remember what I had for breakfast this morning. I always feel I must be such a disappointment to them.

You know what? I only see myself doing films that interest me and that are a little bit off the beaten path. I will go wherever that takes me. I just - - I always say it just can`t be generic. I can`t be the girlfriend or the wife or the - - you can`t play the characters that I`ve been blessed to play and then do that. I can`t be the girl in the film.

(High school) "My biggest complaint is school when it`s Send-the-roses day, somebody`s always left out. I always got roses, but I would give them to someone who hadn`t gotten any."

Being sexy is being confident. It`s important to know you don`t have to have silicone breasts falling out and a thigh-high skirt. Sometimes you meet people and they think, `Another cute little blonde actress.` That`s not who I am. - on rather being known as clever than sexy

Being a teen idol is what I`ve waited for my whole life.

[on the Internet] "I got a computer and I`m learning how to use it. I collect antique books, so I used it to get my copy of `Les Liaisons Dangereuses,` and I use it for travel, to look up customs. I went to Fiji, and I looked up all this stuff before I went, like `Don`t wear a hat in someone`s house because it`s rude, and don`t wear shoes.` You`ve got to think there`s something better I can do with my time than log on to the Internet and say, `Ooo, let`s find out about me!` I think that would frighten me a little bit."

You`ll never know what you`re capable of if you don`t try.

It used to be only on TV that women could lead, that a show could be based on a woman.

I think the best piece of advice I`ve ever gotten is to trust myself and go for my dreams. I got that from my mom.

The thing about Buffy and Spike is they understand each other on a level that nobody else understands her.

It`s funny in the sense of he`ll say to me, `You don`t understand. You`re doing a movie. I`ve been on my feet all day.` I`m like, `For real? For real I don`t understand?` So that`s kind of odd. And the times are funny because I`m on nights and he`s more organized in terms of...or last week he was getting out of the house at like 3:30 in the morning. On her doing movies and Freddie doing his show.

I`ve always been fascinated by Asian culture, and I love that women can play the lead in a horror film.

But there are still only certain film genres where a woman can stand out, be heroic, be the centerpiece.

Because Buffy really has become the straight man, every once in a while it`s nice to be the one that tells the joke and it`s nice to be the one that is the joke and it`s nice to do something that`s a little bit different.

I don`t understand why James Bond has to be a man all the time. When Pierce Brosnan retires, why not one of us?

I wish, and I wish so much for the film industry right now. I wish so much for originality and I wish so much and I think that we`re caught in this difficult cycle right now because our studios are corporations now. I keep talking about the old 1940s, where one guy with a cigar and a scotch made decisions for a studio and now because there are all these computer corporations basically, technology companies and there`s so much else that goes into a decision that it`s very difficult to get films that are different that are off the beaten path made. It`s much easier to get something unoriginal made than to get something original.

Simply Irresistible (1999) was just a bad choice - and for that it was a great learning experience. I wasn`t ready to make that movie. I was too young. The script was not ready. I knew in my heart before I left to make it that I should back out.

I`m from New York, I make kind of somewhat maybe lewd, at times - maybe some would say dirty - jokes. But in jest.

You can`t be selfish and have a child. Right now I want to live my life and have fun. I want to go sit in my Jacuzzi and drink wine all night. (on not wanting children at this point)

I like food. I like eating. And I don`t want to deprive myself of good food.

I was protected on my show. I worked constantly. You don`t party when you`re on a TV show. You go to bed for 10 hours and learn your lines.

I think actually what I`m going to do when I`m done and take my next vacation, is I`m going to go over and start unions in Japan. I`m going to unionize Japan. Because the way they work those crews is so criminal. There`s no overtime, so they can just keep going.

[on Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon]: "They`re unbelievable. They`re an inspiration to young love."

[on playing Kendall Hart on "All My Children" (1970):] "I seduced my stepfather, and when he wouldn`t sleep with me, I slept with the stable boy, cried rape, and my mother stabbed him with a letter opener. Then I went to jail for perjury, burned my parents` divorce papers, and locked up my little sister. I think that was all in the first week." [New York Times, April 27, 1997]

You`re forced to think about what your goals are and you clarify them because you`re taking this journey with another person and you need to be open with your partner.

As with anything, you need to keep your creative juices flowing and keep the character interesting.

In television, women can really run anything. It can be a comedy, it can be a drama, it can be genre, it can be anything. But in films, women are still getting to the top.

I also think it was important for me and Freddie to be able to have a lot of time to share our lives at the beginning of our marriage rather than my coming home at 9 or 10 at night from the set. Things have really worked out for the best for both of us.

How can women be as thin as we are? We have personal trainers to work us out. We have specially prepared meals.

I don`t understand why James Bond has to be a man all the time. When Pierce Brosnan retires, why not one of us?

Horror films are where women can shine and have a chance to lead. They always save the day in these films.

No, that`s what bothers me. That`s how they think. Okay, this is a summer...I remember that it used to be you could see great movies any time. Now it`s like summer is for blockbusters, fall is for the movies that they can`t fit into any other time, that`s like September. Then Oscar movies start, it used to be post Thanksgiving. Now the awards are earlier so it starts earlier. January is when they dump movies. And it`s just so... it seems to me so obvious that wouldn`t it be better for the marketplace to have these movies spread out? Not just people don`t only go to the movies in summer time. If that was the truth, then in the summer time they would count the whole week`s worth of the box office but it`s still only a weekend. So why does it matter...sorry, I get a little upset. It`s just frustrating.

[On her kissing scene with Selma Blair in Cruel Intentions (1999)]: "It was a great kiss. It even had a saliva trail."

Ultimately, I want to have a good career and do interesting work.

I would go to college to be a journalist. I always wanted to write for Time or Newsweek. (On what she would do if she wasn`t acting.)

It makes me think of women who don`t shave their legs. - on what the word "feminist" means

And I don`t know what I`d do at a fraternity party. All that might be a little lost on me.

In this day and age, everything is so cross-marketed that the lines have blurred in my opinion between what is an actor and what is a celebrity. What is reality? All you have to do is pick up a magazine or turn on the television and you can get ideas from places that five years ago you couldn`t.

(Horror Movies) "I`m always the one who gets killed. And I want it to be really gory. Body parts all over the place. Mangled! "

I had to twist his [Freddie`s] arm and leg to see Moulin Rouge! Although he enjoyed it once we were there. In fact, there was a moment during the evening when I swear I thought he was going to leave me for Nicole Kidman but then, who could blame him? I`d probably leave him for Nicole if she asked. She`s hot!

[On Being A Teen Idol] "This is what I`ve waited for my whole life."

[On job pressures] "There`s so much pressure on all of us right now. On Katie Holmes, on James Van Der Beek and myself, to do these movies, and do as much as you can because there is the slight feeling that one day your phone will stop ringing. It`s not about the craft, per se. It`s so easy to fall for it all because people remind you constantly that as fast as it comes, it can go. And I think there is this sort of paranoia, this need to keep working. And I know that I felt it, and for the first three years of the show, I never had more than a week off, except for Christmas. That was it".

Just because you donate sperm does not make you a father. I don`t have a father. I would never give him the credit or acknowledge him as my father.

I love Australia. My dream would be to have a place to live there and be able to commute back and forth.

(On being `skinny`) "How can women be as thin as we are? We have personal trainers to work us out. We have specially prepared meals."

There`s a part of me that will always believe that Angel is Buffy`s true love. That there will be a piece of her heart that will always be with him for the rest of her life.

I hope positively. One thing about the show was it was never categorized. It was drama, comedy, action, horror, all of those things combined. And I just want people to remember it as a fabulous run, a fabulous seven years. - how she would like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and her work on it to be remembered.

I also want the chance to work with some of the best actors in the business, because that`s where you can learn so much by just being on a set and getting a feel for how they approach their role and how they work with you.

I think it`s a mistake if people just fall in love and think that that`s the only thing you need to keep you happy. There`s a lot more to being with someone than just love.

One of the greatest gifts my job has given me is that my mother, who gave up her entire life for me, doesn`t have to work any more. I`m now in a position to repay her for her devotion.

[on posing nude] "Right now I can`t picture posing, but I don`t believe in saying never... There might be a time when I got pregnant and felt really beautiful and wanted to have a nude picture."

I am militant about drugs. You want to do `em? You`re out of my life.

I didn`t want to come back just to come back, though. It had to be a purposeful story-line. And I love that this film is coming to America.

[On gay marriage] "I have good friends, gay couples, who`ve been together for 18 years. It drives me crazy that in the eyes of the law, their love isn`t acknowledged when I have girlfriends who have married four times by the age of 25."

I really consider life to be like studying. The first thing I look up when I`m out of town is the local museum. You can always continue to learn.

Being an actor gives you a chance to play all kinds of roles, very moving and dramatic on one project, silly and girlish on another. That`s the most interesting thing out this business, you get to keep reinventing yourself.

[about "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997):] "To me, the scariest elements of horror films are the things that could really happen. And what is more scary than high school? ... What I like about the show is that it reminds you it`s O.K. to be different. What people think isn`t necessarily true. If people walk away with half of that, we`ve done our job." [New York Times, April 27, 1997]

Basically I only like to choose films that I don`t understand. As long as they`re greater than my mental capacity, I figure I gotta be doing something artful, right? Isn`t that what makes something art when you don`t understand it?

That`s so weird. It`s one of those things that`s like you go on location and you`re there for a week getting ready. Here it`s like you`re walking the dog, you`re paying the bills and then 10 minutes later, you have to go to work. It`s a very sort of odd- - I`m grateful for it and so glad to actually film a movie in Hollywood. Although some of these locations are pretty far. I could probably fly to some of them- Working in LA filming the movie Southland Tales (2006).

Well, that`s the old story I heard about the Jackie Chan films. That, like, Jackie Chan will just keep going and when crew members drop he just replaces them. I don`t know if that`s true but after having worked in Japan I believe it might be true.

I don`t smoke, don`t drink much, and go to the gym five times a week. I live a healthy lifestyle and feel great. I can run a marathon, you know.

[on why she was happy to get married:] "I`m so grateful I don`t have to go looking for a man on a Saturday night. I was always terrible at chatting up men." [December 10, 2003]