Reese Witherspoon

[On struggling to be taken seriously in the industry] Even now, people want to marginalize me. They want to attribute all my success to teenagers seeing my movies. I really resent it when people say, “It’s just a genre film; it’s a teen comedy.” It takes a lot of work to make these things have heart and resonance so they’re not just empty, disposable confections. But I don’t give a damn about other people’s perceptions, because I’ll show them. For women in this business, ascendancy is always a battle. It’s scrape and claw. I just try to stick to my guns and respect myself. I want to take the ingenues aside and say, “Value yourself! It’s O.K. if you have opinions!

While making Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, I had like 50 outfit changes. It was great! I’m real into the whole “girlie” thing, it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it.

[on choosing films she will be in] I have a weird process, but the main thing is like this: I hear her voice in my head. There are a lot of wonderful scripts my agents can’t believe I pass on, but I do because I can’t hear the voice. It doesn’t appeal to me then. I’m really careful. Unless I hear the voice, I can’t do it.

It really bothers me when people don’t use coasters. Particularly on my table.

I don’t believe in perfection. I don’t think there is such a thing. But the energy of wanting things to be great is a perfectionist energy.

I’m pretty conservative or old-fashion, I should say, it’s how I grew up. I think you have to let your children be individuals, but you have to set boundaries. Ryan and I have similar ideas about all of it, you really have to support you partner in the things that are important to them and hold the line together.

I love being sexy; I’m never gonna stop being an exhibitionist

My body is the shape I live in and it shapes the way I live.

We had this bonding week at the begining and I did a lot of improvising with Rupert and he’s really, like hes incredibly funny, but just as a real person, because hes funny in the film obviously, but he can do – he’s like really versatile doing acting, and Emma as well, she can just, she just does it, shes an actress, she always has been and she’s just incredibly intelligent young person.

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

By the way, when Oprah Winfrey is suggesting you may have overextended yourself, you need to examine your f**ing life.

These critics with the illusions they’ve created about artists – it’s like idol worship. They only like people when they’re on their way up… I cannot be on the way up again.

Whatever the occasion, [the Queen] has a face which demonstrably says ‘I don’t give a royal s**t.’

George Clooney married Amal Alamuddin this year. Amal is a human rights lawyer who worked on the Enron case, was an adviser to Kofi Annan regarding Syria, and was selected to a three-person U.N. commission investigating rules of war violations in the Gaza Strip. So tonight, her husband is getting a lifetime achievement award.

I’m not going to have a baby until I’m around 30-something.

God gave us a penis and a brain, but not enough blood to use both at once.

I’m from the ghetto side of Sydney. We don’t really do drive-bys, we just do drive-thrus.

Paramount sent them nine-foot-high (theater lobby) cutouts of me. They say, “You don’t have to come home, we’ve got you in every room of the house!”

This is between us! You know this is the best thing for the company.

When you’re on your fifth album, you are going to be judged against all your previous work and expectations.

I wrote my own verses. Anything I did, I wrote myself.