Life can take so many twists and turns. You can’t ever count yourself out. Even if you’re really afraid at some point, you can’t think that there’s no room for you to grow and do...

My feelings for Ellen overrode all of my fear about being out as a lesbian. I had to be with her, and I just figured I’d deal with the other stuff later.

I don’t even like watching sex scenes in movies. I have a slight prudish side to me.

I stumbled into acting and just loved it. I deferred law school-and I’m still deferred.

I try to be feminine, yet intellectual and smart at the same time. You don’t see enough of that.

If your self esteem really does depend on how you look, you’re always going to be insecure. There’s no way you can get around it. Even if you get the perfect body, you’re going to...

People might find me attractive, but it’s also my job to prove that I can be intelligent.

I had a hell of a time convincing people I was gay – which was so annoying!

Just look at all the awards shows now. It has turned into a catwalk. You have to be wearing a certain designer, a certain dress, and everyone’s critiquing.

I want to exude strength and intelligence.

I wondered if that’s what aging felt like. That desire and reality were dueling until the day you die, that nobody every got to a place of peace. I had always wanted to get old...

Supermodels are over, and the new picture girl has become the television actress.

I have to be asked, I guess, but I love the idea of marriage. I think it’s beautiful. I’m such a romantic, and I always have been.

Recovery feels like shit. It didn’t feel like I was doing something good; it felt like I was giving up. It feels like having to learn how to walk all over again.

I want young people to see me and think you can be feminine and smart and successful, all at the same time.

The diet industry is making a lot of money selling us fad diets, nonfat foods full of chemicals, gym memberships, and pills while we lose a piece of our self-esteem every time we fail another...

The most important thing for me was to never, ever, ever deny it. But I didn’t really have the courage to talk about it. I was thinking, The people who need to know I’m gay...

I justified it in so many ways. I had a very, very long and difficult struggle with my sexuality.

I was very sexual from a very young age.

When it’s quiet in my head like this, that’s when the voice doesn’t need to tell me how pathetic I am. I know it in the deepest part of me. When it’s quiet like this,...

We must be able to inspire. That’s my goal in acting.

I knew that I was gay, I knew it. I just couldn’t see myself as a gay woman, even though that’s where my heart was.

I’m living by example by continuing on with my career and having a full, rich life, and I am incidentally gay.

And dieting, I discovered, was another form of disordered eating, just as anorexia and bulimia similarly disrupt the natural order of eating. “Ordered” eating is the practice of eating when you are hungry and ceasing...

When I was 15, I changed my name legally. I think it was largely due to my struggle about being gay. Everything just didn’t fit, and I was trying to find things I could identify...

I love being able to wear dresses and clothes that make me feel feminine and beautiful, and I love the fact that I don’t have to all the time; I can wear a tank and...

I’ve had so many interviews where the last question is, Are you gay? I had to find very creative ways to say that I was gay, but that I wasn’t going to talk about it.

I don’t know where this pressure came from. I can’t blame my parents because it has always felt internal. Like any other parent, my mother celebrated the A grades and the less-than-A grades she felt...

When I was about 16, I was crazy about this girl. I had a certain amount of money in the bank where I could put a downpayment on a rental, and I went to her...

I married him for a green card. We had a really great, caring relationship; it just obviously wasn’t right for me.

If I was 14 and knew some gay people, I wouldn’t nearly have had the struggle I had. Our world is definitely changing.

My sexuality is a part of me that I really like. But it’s not the totality of me.

When I was anorexic it just seemed like I literally wanted to disappear. And now I would like to reappear.

I ran into Ellen at a photo shoot. She took my breath away. That had never happened to me in my life.

If you’ve looked at all the glamour magazines lately, all the covers are actresses. If they are on those covers, they are going to try to emulate models. That’s just the way it is.

Everyone is their own kind of lesbian. To think there’s a certain way to dress or present yourself in the world is just one more stereotype we have to fit into.

When I watched Ellen come out in ’97, my jaw was on the floor. I thought, There are some people who break the doors down, hold them open, and some people who walk right through.

I really never stopped thinking about Ellen, because I just haven’t felt that kind of energy with anyone in my life.

In high school I had sex with girls quite a few times. They were straight women who I convinced to jump in the sack with me.

I did a lot of fast talking as a youth; I was pretty good at it. I was never talked into it-I was always the one doing the talking.

When you have the paparazzi hiding in the bushes outside your home, the only thing you can control is how you respond publicly.

I saw Ellen and my knees were weak. It was amazing. And it was very hard for me to get her out of my mind after that. Then when I saw her that night, we...

It sounds so trite, but my private life is mine.

I didn’t choose the fact that I was gay, but I did choose whether to live my life as a gay woman-that was the terrifying thing for me. Especially being a gay actress.

You live with the fear people might find out. Then you actually have the courage to tell people and they go, I don’t think you are gay. It’s enough to drive you crazy.

I thought, I’m out in my life, that doesn’t involve my public life.