I think fashion is a lot of fun. I love clothes. More than fashion or brand labels, I love design. I love the thought that people put into clothes. I love when clothes make cultural statements and I think personal style is really cool. I also freely recognize that fashion should be a hobby.
Weddings are important because they celebrate life and possibility.
You have to want to be married to someone. You have to feel that reciprocated. Marriage for marriage's sake doesn't make any sense to me, and I found someone with whom I could put my money where my mouth is, I guess.
I've always believed in people's capacity for goodness. I still believe that people are good. What I'm not so trusting about anymore is their relationship to their own goodness.
Mellow doesn't always make for a good story, but it makes for a good life.
Kindness is really important to me in finding my own prince - so are patience and a sense of humor. Without those qualities he's no Prince Charming!
There's something very addictive about people pleasing. It's a thought pattern and a habit that feels really, really good until it becomes desperate.
Loneliness is my least favorite thing about life. The thing that I'm most worried about is just being alone without anybody to care for or someone who will care for me.
I believe I've always been a big believer in equality. No one has ever been able to tell me I couldn't do something because I was a girl.
I'll wear my mom jeans in public that haven't been tailored 'just so' yet, just because they feel good.
I was raised in a solidly upper-middle class family who had really strong values and excess was not one of the things that my family put up with. And there's something wildy decadent about the young-star lifestyle, and I just don't really see the point.
When I was a teenager, I would have tried anything that an actress I liked was doing to get thin.
A lot of people have told me, 'You're not this and so can't play that,' and I can't tell you the amount of times I've been told I'm not sexy. I just go: 'I'm a lot of things. Just because I don't wear my sexiness overtly doesn't mean that I can't become that girl for a role.
If you're not someone who has a natural and effortless love for yourself, it's hard to let go of your desire to please other people, and that's really not an ingredient for a happy life.
I used to be like everyone else and think the Kardashians are just famous for being famous. But I've been really impressed with how supportive Kim Kardashian has been of Caitlyn Jenner.
You can alter movie singing so much because you go into the recording studio and, just technology for recording has gotten so good, you can hold out a note and they can combine a note from take 2 and a note from take 8.
On the scale of someone who's really laid-back about stuff and someone who worries a lot, I fall more towards the latter.
I think relationships are work, but love is a gift.
I love it when people are able to interpret thoughts and feelings on fabric or some kind of material.
I've honestly been really lucky. My only jobs have been babysitting and acting.
We assume that we've come so far as compassionate citizens of the world if we do choose to read the news, yet the attitude towards life can be one where we put blinders on and forget that there are civil wars going on. It's easy to forget that there are so many people starving to death every single day.
I'll start with one healthy kid, but I'd like to have a few naturally and adopt.
Michelle Pfeiffer in Tim Burton's 'Batman' was one of the most inspiring - I saw that and I was like, 'I want to be her, I want to do that.'
It takes a minute for me to let my guard down, but once I do and I get to know someone, I'm very open, very trusting. Some might say too trusting, because considering the amount of money that can be made from selling gossip, I could be very easily taken advantage of.
I remember when I was starting out as a young actress, thinking, 'Oh my God, I have the fattest face.' Now I look at those pictures and I think, 'So much collagen!'
When I meet people for the first time, I'm friendly but shy. I'm much less outwardly nervous than I used to be, but I still get anxious sometimes.
I used to believe that love was finding someone who would lead you through the deep water.
I was thrust into a really lofty, enviable, but isolated position with 'Princess Diaries' in that I could carry a film before I really knew if I could act.
I'd love to be an artist that's multifaceted. At the moment, I am not. But wouldn't that be cool if I was like, 'Yeah, let me pull out my guitar and play you a song.' I would adore that. I am so far not gifted in that way. But I am a very hard worker and a very determined person, so who knows?
I kind of got my big break with 'The Princess Diaries' and during the press rounds for that everyone asked me: 'Did you always want to be a princess growing up?' And the truth was, no I wanted to be Catwoman.
I grew up in a pretty large family. We were really close-knit, so I definitely want to have lots and lots of children.
I have no aspirations of world domination through the pop charts. None at all.
I'm pretty good at remaining calm during an emergency. My house burned down when I was 12, which made me really pragmatic about what needed to be done. But I can be bad in that I compartmentalize a lot of emotions and push them away to deal with them at a later date.
I try not to date where I work. It makes life easier. I don't say no to anybody because I'd hope that people wouldn't say no to me just because I'm an actor - but they'd have to be pretty extraordinary.
Quite frankly, I didn't become an actor to become a movie star. I have never dreamed about being the most famous person on the planet. I just want to do really good work.
It's definitely a thing to be sitting there, getting a pedicure, and you look over and someone is reading an article about an aspect of your life that you know is not true. It's weird, it's uncomfortable, but I don't see it changing anytime soon, so I should figure a way to laugh through it.
I try to stay out of the spotlight as much as humanly possible, because I think that when actors, whether or not they've chosen it or it has been thrust upon them, are living very public lives, it affects your ability to get lost in their performances.
What I've observed and what I've imagined - and definitely what I'm hoping - happens as you get older is that there's a mellowing, an acceptance that comes with time. I guess that I'll find out.
Whether or not you agree with Ayn Rand - and I have certain issues with some of her beliefs - the woman can tell a story. I mean, the novel as an art form is just in full florid bloom in 'Atlas Shrugged.' It's an unbelievable story. The characters are so compelling, and what she's saying is mind-expanding.
I disagree with a couple of the stances of the Catholic Church. My older brother is gay, and it's important for me to be able to love him completely and freely, and it's important for me to spread beliefs in the world that are not going to limit people in their love. I can't support a religion that doesn't support my brother.
I'm not one of those stars that goes out and literally dresses to be photographed. I'm kind of a 'what you see is what you get' type of girl when I dress. I go for comfort above everything else.
I've worked with people and I've known people that were really competitive, but I've always said that I take an Elizabeth Bennett philosophy of life - I laugh. I love my job, but if it means hurting someone, I won't do it.
I love fashion; I love being able to have fun with it, but I think I need to get a little bit more organised before I ever become a true fashionista.
I love the short-haired lifestyle.
I'm much happier talking with people than I am flirting with them.
I look my best after an entire hair and makeup team has spent hours perfecting me. When do I feel my best? When I haven't looked in a mirror for days, and I'm doing things that make me happy.
I'm very aware of my own background. I'm Irish, French, and then a little bit of everything else thrown in, ranging from German to Native American. We're talking about tiny drops of blood.
I gave up my struggle with perfection a long time ago. That is a concept I don't find very interesting anymore. Everyone just wants to look good in the photographs. I think that is where some of the pressure comes from. Be happy. Be yourself, the day is about a lot more.
So as long as I'm a working actor, I can improve. I want to work with people that frighten me and excite me, and characters that I don't believe I'm the best person for the part but I'm still gonna try anyway. Those are my favorite roles.
My feeling about growing up in New Jersey was, 'How come I'm not in New York?' That being said, I'm older and I have a better worldview now, and so I think I grew up in an incredibly privileged position. The town I grew up in is beautiful. I got a great education, and I'm very grateful for it.
Ireland is such an amazing country, and I have this little dream in the back of my head that someday I'll end up living there. When I've established myself in America and I don't need to live near the action, so to speak, and if you're good, the work will come to you. I feel very Irish; maybe that's why I've been so lucky with my career.
I did work at Christie's for a couple of weeks, getting ready for 'The Devil Wears Prada,' getting people coffee and doing whatever they needed around the office. It was amazing. I got to see some wonderful art, and everybody was really nice. It was great.
I damaged my health during 'Les Mis,' which I didn't want to mention in case it seemed like I was courting sympathy.
When I was in my early twenties, parts would be written for women in their fifties, and I would get them. And now I'm in my early thirties, and I'm like, 'Why did that 24-year-old get that part?' I was that 24-year-old once. I can't be upset about it; it's the way things are.
I am crushing so hard on Amy Schumer. Women like her who have chosen to stand up for themselves and face the bullies are being so embraced.
When I was younger, I felt very much like, 'Oh, I have to be a certain way, I have to look a certain way.' You really, really don't. That's the way women are treated differently than men. I mean, I've had actors argue with me about this.
My whole M.O. in my 20s was being in as many different types of films as you can. Working with as many different types of directors as you can. I think, in part, that's what I wanted to do as an actor.
I'm not very daring in my street style, usually because there's a photographer around!
Oh, my God. I want to be a mother, and I anticipate loving my children quite fiercely. I think about it all the time, though it's a silly thing to think about because the kind of mother I'll be depends on the kind of children I have. I can't wait to meet them.
I've wanted to be a mother since I was 16, but I also just knew I wanted to have a career as well.
When I look back on my twenties, I just remember being afraid of everything, and in my thirties, I'm actually excited by things. And if things don't work out, you know, by the time you've hit your thirties, you've had your fair share of disappointments.
I'm obsessed with Kate Middleton. Obsessed. I loved the Royal Wedding. I was so cynical going into it, and pseudo-political about the whole thing, but as soon as I saw her, I was utterly charmed. I'm just completely enchanted by Kate and William.
I sing everywhere. I have a very patient husband. He says he doesn't mind. But we've only been married a year and a half!
When I think back to some of the most fun nights of my life, it was just me out dancing without a care in the world. It's a release, an outlet.
I think that Jersey Shore is awesome. I've gone to Cape May every summer of my life.
'One Day' is definitely heartbreaking in a few ways, but one of the main ways is that my character and Jim Sturgess's character are just people from two different worlds who love each other in so many ways and can't quite seem to get it together.
I look around at my peers, and I'm so blown away by their talent and their beauty and their cool style, as well as their ability to be an actress and be a movie star and be good at it. I mean, they're so good, and we're all trying to get the same parts.
I like to watch MTV for escapist pleasure, but when I saw Snooki, I saw my twin. I couldn't lose myself in the show anymore because there I was.
I'm a homebody.
I think we all want to really live good lives, and we all really want to have a healthy planet, although I don't know if we're supposed to be on it forever. Now, does that mean that we should be building rocket ships to shoot us into outer space? Well if we can, I think we should.
I really love yoga.
I still can't believe I'm the girl who got to play Fantine.
I love rom-coms, and I was bummed that they sort of stopped making them around the time I was old enough to be in them. But at the same time, I so respected the fact that the genre kind of needed an update. But you know, even when rom-coms were at their hey-day, very few people did it at the level of Nancy Meyers.
If people weren't watching, I'd be so much more eccentric. I know it makes me sound weak, but rather than make myself happy and wear the silly hat and say, 'Oh, I don't care,' I actually really don't feel like getting made fun of. So I put on something boring and navy and go out and try to disappear.
I'm not Rihanna. I'm not cool. When people come up to me in the street, they often want a hug, not a photo, and they want that because they like my work.
I was on a starvation diet to look like I was near death in a film... but I went at it with a plan, and I had a guide; a nutritionist kind of helped me with it.
The whole beauty of music is that it goes where your words won't let you.