Helen Hunt

“It's very healing to me to be a very present mother. I hope that it's also good for her. But it's definitely good for me.”

“I loved Julia Louis-Dreyfus's show 'The New Adventures of Old Christine.' That made me laugh out loud. She's like Lucille Ball. She's brilliant.”

“I think if my daughter was interested in acting, I would find ways for her to act in theater that has to do with her school or a kids' improvisational thing. There are ways to do it where you're not on a movie set with 60 adults, which I loved at the time, but as a parent, I don't know that I'd be dying to put her in that spot.”

“The best movies have one sentence that they're exploring, a thesis, something that people can argue about over dinner afterward.”

“אני מגיעה לבימוי ממקום של שחקנית שאוהבת שחקנים. אני יודעת כיצד כל שחקן מקווה שלא להביך את עצמו ולהביא את המיטב לסצנה כשהוא הכי חשוף. אם אני יכולה לתת הכוונה מינימלית – זה כבר הופך את החוויה להרבה יותר מתגמלת.”

“אף על פי שאני מביימת לא מעט, אני משתוקקת לקבל הצעות לשחק.”

“אני חושבת שכולנו ילדים בני 5 שלא רוצים להיות מובכים בחצר בית הספר.”

“על הלשון אפשר לשלוט יותר מאשר על הבעות הפנים.”

“I've always had to force myself to make friends and speak to people. My parents were quiet, and it took me a while to get used to the fact that people talk about their feelings, their problems.”

“I actually have a life I said I wanted to have. I wanted to tell stories I want and be with my family. I'm whispering it, because I'm a quarter Jewish and afraid it's all going to be taken away.”

“Movie acting is a great job for your twenties: You travel all over, you have affairs with people, and you throw yourself into one part and then another. It gets more challenging as you get older, and it's not just having a daughter, it's wanting to have your own life and be yourself.”

“I think I have more of a director's brain than an actor's brain, in a way.”

“I wanted to have a personal life that I fully inhabited, not because I am such a great mom, but for me.”

“You either have a baby, want a baby, or don't want a baby, but you don't nothing a baby if you're in your 30s or 40s.”

“I don't wish I started later, but I was never a child star. I was in school every year and had normal friends and I loved it and here I am, so I can't say that I wish I hadn't done it. I used to say, 'No, I didn't miss any of my childhood,' but it is a very adult place to be, a movie set. Like, it's a little weird.”

“I've made choices that work with my family. I want to work and I want to be with my family so I just walk the tight-rope of showing up for both those things.”

“I've been offered a couple of shows that have been very successful, but they weren't right for me. It has to be something I could be excited about for a long time.”

“I think that all of us are 5-year-olds and we don't want to be embarrassed in the schoolyard. I've gone through things in my life. People say it must be so hard to do it in the public eye, but the truth is, when you go through hard things, it's just hard.”

“I think that all of us are 5-year-olds and we don't want to be embarrassed in the schoolyard.”

“I've worked for a long time, but I got to the point where I felt like, I am out here so far, how do I get back? I want to have a real life, a personal life. I didn't want a personal life I just visited.”