Quotes from Reese Witherspoon

Well I always wanted to be Dolly Parton when I was a little girl. I was obsessed with her.

It's funny that it all becomes about clothes. It's bizarre. You work your butt off and then you win an award and it's all about your dress. You can't get away from it.

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

And you know, life is a constant learning experience. I learn so much with my kids. I read tons of books and study what they're studying.

Every day is not a success. Every year is not a success. You have to celebrate the good.

I had parents who believed I could do anything - and I know how that made me feel. I think both my parents, having careers in the medical profession, feel they are helping people on a daily basis, and that was inculcated in me as a value. I had to struggle with giving up the idea of becoming a doctor myself.

To play June, I had an immediate connect with her background and culture. We grew up with the same religion and shared a lot of the same values of family and spirituality. But I was really so inspired by what a modern woman she was.

Your body is just a vessel for who you are as a person. And until you work on what you give back to the world, it doesn't matter what you look like on the outside.

Costumes, fashion, it's all an expression of self, and the more you push the boundaries - the more that people work at creating alternative ideas - the more it changes people's ideas of beauty.

I want to make my life, not just my job, the best it can be. The rest will work itself out.

I don't think I realised how stressed I was, being a single parent. It was really, really stressful. It's not easy on anybody.

My whole drive to be an actor was finding roles that I really believed represent modern women, the struggles that we deal with. Women who are strong and capable and in control of their own lives.

But with the right kind of coaching and determination you can accomplish anything and the biggest accomplishment that I feel I got from the film was overcoming that fear.

Art is art. Television has elevated itself, in certain ways, but it's always pushed people's consciousness.

Ryan and I didn't grow up like this at all, with this much attention. We'll just try to keep their feet on the ground and raise them with the values we were raised with.

For our first date, I made Ryan Hamburger Helper, which is basically what I grew up on. I make my own version of it now, with macaroni and cheese and hamburger meat. And the kids - it's their favorite dinner.

I'm just trying to matter and live a good life and make work that means something to somebody.

I didn't really understand fashion until I started going to Paris and seeing the ateliers and how hard these people work. It's art.

I don't want to discount the beautiful work that the fashion houses do, but somehow, just focusing on what you're wearing feels reductive.

I think it's really interesting to play a woman who can articulate that she isn't ready to have a family and isn't even sure if she wants a family. I have a lot of friends like that. But obviously, that's not me.

Confidence is everything in this business.

I literally think I look bad in every picture.

Kids are the best part of my day. I don't wake up to make movies. I wake up to hang out with my family.

Many people worry so much about managing their careers, but rarely spend half that much energy managing their LIVES. I want to make my life, not just my job, the best it can be. The rest will work itself out.