A great power has to have the discipline not only to go when necessary but to know when not to go. Getting involved in ethnic religious civil wars is a recipe for disaster.

True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare.

The purpose of getting power is to be able to give it away.

Getting and spending we lay waste our powers.

I look to longevity. I just consider myself an actress and getting good roles. If being a 'superstar' gets me good roles then that's a positive thing. But my goal isn't just to be a superstar. It's to act for a long time.

There's been a slow death in a way. On the positive side there are films getting into the Academy Awards that wouldn't have but on the negative side financiers are now dominant and making all the decisions. I can't count the ways a director's vision is compromised.

I'm getting positive feedback for my acting so we'll see if any other interesting parts come up.

Getting sober just exploded my life. Now I have a much clearer sense of myself and what I can and can't do. I am more successful than I have ever been. I feel very positive where I never did before and I think that's all a direct result of getting sober.

I'm not really one of those people who believes that if you're a musician you can just leave that behind and start getting into politics.

The next thing I am doing is moving back home to Minnesota and getting involved in politics. I'm looking at a run for Senate in 2008 but in the meantime I am focused on knitting together the progressive network in the upper Midwest.