I definitely wanted to be an actor. I didn’t want to be on TV, I didn’t want to be famous, I didn’t want to be anyone in particular; I just wanted to do it. I see young people now who look at magazines, or American Idol and their goal is to have that lifestyle – to have good handbags, or go out with cute guys from shows, or whatever. But I definitely wanted to be an actor.

Nobody ever seems to want my advice about serious stuff. People will be like: ‘Who made that sweater?’ Or ‘How did you get your hair so straight?’ They don’t to come to me for the relationship advice or deep stuff. In fact, my little sister actually hides from me.

If I had a normal job and had been moving up, I’d be management level now.

One of the things I like about the show is it redefines the idea of what it is to be a mother, which at its most basic level is to take care of a child. It doesn’t mean you have to look like the ladies in the Lysol commercials.

Belly buttons are cool!

I feel real ownership in this show. I feel very invested in it. I care very much about it. I don’t feel any more like a hired hand, you know? It’s a strange feeling – I feel personally responsible for how the story goes. What happens. What the weaknesses are. And so in a way, some of the changes gave me an opportunity to have a voice in a different way.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten more liberal, and my father is increasingly conservative. It’s so shocking to me because I always thought we had the same politics. The day I realized we voted for different presidents, I practically fell out of my chair.

Perspective is the most important thing to have in life.

I’ve made out more this season on a family-friendly show than ever in my actual life.

Growing up an only child with a single parent is probably why I’m an actor.

I definitely wanted to be an actor. I didn’t want to be on TV, I didn’t want to be famous, I didn’t want to be anyone in particular; I just wanted to do it. I see young people now who look at magazines, or American Idol and their goal is to have that lifestyle – to have good handbags, or go out with cute guys from shows, or whatever. But I definitely wanted to be an actor.

These days I have to be extra nice in stores. It never fails that whenever I look as bad as I can possibly look or I am sort of cranky because the store is out of something, that is precisely the time when someone one will recognize me and say: ‘I really like your show.’

The parts for women, you’re either like the quietly suffering wife or the wild girl.

Texting is not flirting, if you don’t care about me enough to say the words than that’s not love, I don’t like it!

All my references are 50 years old-when somebody shot J.R., you know? Oh my god, I’m 100!

I’m nice, and I show up on time.

Some people think my father was a spy, because of working for that government agency in Vietnam, but he can’t find his car keys, much less keep a national secret.

You want the story to end when it’s supposed to and not be squeezed for somebody’s financial gain.

It’s great to have an acting job in the age of Reality TV.

The thing I don’t like on television is when somebody does something that makes absolutely no sense just for the shock of it.