Reese Witherspoon

Life isn’t just about you: It’s about family and friends and giving back.

I’m just chatty. But I do express my opinion.

I think movies are great and I have a great time making them but they’re not what keeps you warm at night, or what’s ultimately the most important thing in anyone’s life journey.

I read while the kids play. I can see them from the kitchen window. And I’m a fast reader.

Confidence is everything in this business.

I love to cook comfort food. I’ll make fish and vegetables or meat and vegetables and potatoes or rice. The ritual of it is fun for me, and the creativity of it.

I picked up a guitar and found it very difficult and I sort of graduated to drums because I found them very easy – I suppose it was a case of natural aptitude. Mitch Mitchell was my role model at the time, and I still think listening to Mitch Mitchell, especially the early stuff with Hendrix (Jimi Hendrix), is just fantastic.

A designer told me that my wife was a master of light and I was a master of time.

I just needed a job. Before being hired as an usher at the CBS Theater, I didn’t even know there was a show business.

I’ll take opinions from anyone from Jay-Z to a janitor, and I might value the janitor’s opinion more.

I can do anything I want to do really, I might as well.

I know being on a major label is meant to be antiquated, but we’re fine with it.

The fact that I am a young woman who doesn’t need a man for money. I don’t need a man for a job. I’ve never had to f**k for beats. I’ve never had to f**k for a record deal. I don’t have those pressures. I get up when I want, shop when I want.

A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.

I’m having a great time. I get to travel and see the world. And yeah, I’ll have a family, because I don’t want to miss out on that amazing experience, but it’s not defining who I am.

I can do the Chipmunk voice and impressions of Judy Garland, Debbie Reynolds and Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. I could probably do the whole Von Trapp family.

[on drumming] There’s something rather nice about spending the evening hitting things.

I dreamed of being an actress when I was a little kid because you don’t know then that the writer writes everything the actor is saying. But as I got older, I got into college and became more aware that writing is another option, and I started getting into it, too.

I believe in large families. Every woman should have at least three husbands.

My grandfather was a farmer so I was always raised that you worked very hard whatever your job is; my sister was a teacher. You’re to be respected if you try hard and try to be good at something and the results are less important. You can’t control that. The more important thing is that you tried your best. But now there’s much more of an intention where some of these kids don’t want to be actors, they want to be famous! Their focus isn’t necessarily on craftsmanship.

[on Matthew McConaughey] He was always taking his shirt off, he’s like Yeah, here’s my deal, I’m hot.” We had a meeting one day at like 11 o’clock, right before the show and he walks into the meeting shirtless wearing this like old musty sarong… He doesn’t smell great, no.