I was an escapee of childhood. I always wanted to grow up.

It`s hard sometimes if you think a character should look a certain way and you`re being pushed to do it differently. I`ve had fights over that. That`s why it`s so important that you work with good people.

I would love to do something like Austin Powers to show off my comic timing.

I grew up in a mostly Buddhist environment.

Fun wouldn`t be the right word... it was the most difficult, challenging, physical, extraordinary stretch I`ve ever had to make, in all those wild regards.

Even, today, when people tell me I`m beautiful, I do not believe a word of it.

I spent the first fourteen years of my life convinced that my looks were hideous. Adolescence is painful for everyone, I know, but mine was plain weird.

Tall, sandy blonde, with sort of blue eyes, skinny in places, fat in others. An average gal.

We never left a set until we`d trashed it.

Modeling is basically `Buy more stuff! Don`t you want some more stuff? It will make you look ten years younger and men will like you!` If I`d wanted to be a salesperson, I would have got a job selling.

Buddhism has had a major effect on who I am and how I think about the world. What I have learned is that I like all religions, but only parts of them.

When asked if I consider myself Buddhist, the answer is, Not really. But it`s more my religion than any other because I was brought up with it in an intellectual and spiritual environment. I don`t practice or preach it, however.

You learn that the first failure isn`t the end. I thought I`d seen the end of my career 10 times over. I`ve experienced them as death blows. What`s nice - after numerous efforts, successes, failures, losses, professional and personal - is to actually accept you`re not going to ace your life. You suffer, then you get on with it. You may spend three months in bed, but, eventually, you`re going to have to get up.

I think a lot of our lives we spend moving forward, leaping from rock to rock, trying to figure it out. But it`s wonderful to feel in the prime of your life. I feel like I`m in the right place and in the right time with myself. (In Style - February 2006 - "Uma In Full Swing" by Joanne Kaufman)

As they say in gambling, I`ve gotten to stay at the table. I`ve hung in! They pull the plug on people all the time. The sky hook comes out, and it`s all over. But there are much bigger sky hooks - as well we know. (In Style - February 2006 - "Uma In Full Swing" by Joanne Kaufman)

It`s a shakedown. But I feel grateful that the hard things have been survivable - I`ve been able to learn from them and grow - and that the things that have been like a gift, I`ve had the wherewithal to realize are a gift. (In Style - February 2006 - "Uma In Full Swing" by Joanne Kaufman)

Growing up in a small town in New England was one of the most aesthetically pleasant experiences that you can have. (In Style - February 2006 - "Uma In Full Swing" by Joanne Kaufman)

By the time I was 27, when I had my daughter, I felt I had danced on every tabletop - which I hadn`t. Now I know that I hadn`t. At all. There are plenty of tabletops left, should I wish to dance on them. (In Style - February 2006 - "Uma In Full Swing" by Joanne Kaufman)

I`ve learned that every working mom is a superwoman.

I`ve known some great rock chicks, and it seems to me they`re allowed to have a lot more edge than movie people, where everybody`s got the latest youth serums going, the newest exercise and, if that won`t cover it, they`ll do something else. There`s this sort of improve-yourself aspect, whereas the music business seems to have this much more funky attitude, with, like, a slight respect for damage.

Having children flips the game from being about you to being about what you can create in a home and what your responsibilities are. I`ve thought about quitting, but I love what I do so much - it`s the big conundrum of my life.... So I`m fighting to keep my foot in the business, be creative and stimulated, and still take care of my children.

In show business, to pry open doors in new areas is really tough. Until you have a successful comedy, people don`t think you could be funny, which is what makes a director like Quentin Tarantino so special. He sees beyond the things on the resume that you`ve done to date and opens up wonderful cans of worms for you to crawl into. That`s a cool thing.

I think we all exude essential truths about ourselves, and then, as an actress, there`s what you do with it. There`s your wit and your imagination, and what you can cook up from your experience and understanding of what makes a human being tick.

Before I had my child, I thought I knew all the boundaries of myself, that I understood the limits of my heart. It`s extraordinary to have all those limits thrown out, to realize your love is inexhaustible.

I had to go to a mirror and look at it. I couldn`t picture myself in my own head. I had no image beyond a stick figure. I wasn`t a mean person as a kid, or dumb, and something has to be said to justify excluding you.

"Everyone looked the same, everyone had it down to such a perfect T. You get bored. That`s when you have to say, `I will be worst-dressed.`", on her questionable choice of Oscar attire this year (2004)

My washing machine overwhelms me with its options and its sophistication.

Desperation is the perfume of the young actor. It`s so satisfying to have gotten rid of it. If you keep smelling it, it can drive you crazy. In this business a lot of people go nuts, go eccentric, even end up dead from it. Not my plan.

I was not particularly bright, I wasn`t very athletic, I was a little too tall, odd, funny looking, I was just really weird as a kid.

It is better to have a relationship with someone who cheats on you than with someone who does not flush the toilet.

I`m very happy at home. I love to just hang out with my daughter, I love to work in my garden. I`m not a gaping hole of need.

"Tall, sandy blonde, with sort of blue eyes, skinny in places, fat in others. An average gal." - Uma Thurman, self description