Sarah Paulson

“There's a poignancy to being with someone older. I think there's a greater appreciation of time and what you have together and what's important, and it can make the little things seem very small. It puts a kind of sharp light mixed with a sort of diffused light on something.”

“My sister's a big karaoke person, and she's never been able to get me to do it.”

“I did an episode of 'Law & Order,' where I literally didn't move my neck because I thought you couldn't move your head on camera.”

“If my life choices had to be predicated based on what was expected of me from a community on either side, that's going to make me feel really straitjacketed, and I don't want to feel that.”

“To truly feel seen by another person makes you feel so peaceful.”

“I'm not interested in a character's goodness. I'm interested in what makes them human.”

“I like to go into an audition room, particularly when they think I'm not right for a part, and really fight for it. There's something so exciting and challenging about proving to yourself that you can pull it off.”

“I don't feel like a very nostalgic person. I think about the past much more clinically. When I look back and wonder, 'Why was I doing that? Was it a waste of time?' I don't beat myself up. Instead, I say, 'I'm so glad I did that, because now I really know what matters to me.'”

“I've never been on a show that's run for more than a season.”

“All my friends went to the Madonna concert when I was in, maybe, the 9th grade, and my mother refused to let me go.”

“I've only been to one concert in my life.”

“We're constantly, as human beings, trying to understand why we do what we do and how we got to wherever we find ourselves today. Sometimes it takes a lot of time to look back and go, 'I can't believe I spent one day with that person, much less two years.'”

“To me, most of life kind of lives in the grey and I don't just mean morally. I just mean kind of everything. If things were black and white it would be a lot clearer as to what to do all the time.”

“Looking back is a way to sharpen the focus on the things you want to change in your life. I think there's something about nostalgia that really puts a fine point on the here-and-now, and that can be incredibly fascinating and interesting and engaging for the mind.”

“I am a person who is not mated.”

“It's OK to sit in the Golden Globe room and look around and think, 'Oh, Helen Mirren's a loser tonight, so is Nicole Kidman. Meryl Streep lost tonight. Jessica Lange didn't win.' If you're gonna be in the company of losers, that's the company to be in.”

“My choices in life have been unconventional, and that's my business. But I do want to live responsibly and truthfully without hiding.”

“I usually feel like the role comes to you to sort of illuminate some piece of where you are in your life. I feel like I myself am a single woman and I'm childless - by choice - at this point, and I don't know what will happen.”

“The mythology is that from chaos comes great work. I actually used to think that when I was younger, and I no longer think that anymore.”

“I think it's very important for people to not judge the people you're playing. You have to find a way to love them because their story is theirs. I just don't think there would be any use in that.”