"I'm really clear about my priority in my life - it's being a mom. I have enough difficulty balancing doing the show for ten and a half months with being a mom the way I want to be. I love doing films, and I'd like to do that, but I wouldn't like to do it more than I'd like to be my daughter's mother. I threw an enormous Halloween party last year; I built a huge maze with corn and hay, and cooked jambalaya. That's what I should do; I should be a party planner. I'll work a 14-hour day, four days in a row and feel like I've been run over. But I don't call it tired, I call it, 'Nothing is right, and I'm no good at my job and I'm horrible and no one will ever love me.' This is a serial problem for mothers. We're trying to be everything all the time. The best mom, the best worker, the best wife or the best dater. And it's too much."

[On her work schedule] "I'm really lucky to be in a place where I can say, 'I'll do a movie a year in L.A., close to home.'"

"Whatever you're doing, do it 100 percent.  If you're with the kids, don't think about work, and if you're at work, don't think about home.  But the most important thing is to put family first."

[On filming her new movie Iron Man]  "I hadn't worked in a long time.  Then I finally agreed to do this movie.  I reached a place where I thought, 'It's okay that I have a passion for something besides my family.'  I love working in films.  If I do one thing that makes me fulfilled, then I'm a more interesting woman for my children. [On juggling it all] I want to call Kate Winslet and say, 'Can you tell me how to do this?' Or call Cate Blanchett and ask her to describe [her day] from 7 a.m. on, and tell me what to do, because I don't know how to do this.'"

[On balancing work and being a new mom] "It's definitely a struggle.  You're pulled in so many different directions, and you want to do 100 percent everywhere.  My sisters are working moms, and so are my friends.  Any working mom -- it's hard for all of us."

"We'll be shooting and it's a beautiful day outside and I'll just think, 'Aw, Alice is in the park without me.'  But that is just the working parent dilemma.  I can't get my head around it yet.  It seems like all we do now is get up, change diapers, go to work, come home and go immediately to sleep."

"I'll look out in the crowd [while performing] and see a kid and think, 'Oh I forgot to put the clothes out for the girls for bed.'"

[On taking a break from doing back to back films] "I felt like I had worked for 18 years at my career, and this is my reward that I get to stay home with my children."

"[I feel like the worst parent] when my job [on Fox TV thriller Vanished] takes time away from my kids.  I remind myself that I'm instilling in them the importance of having a career.  [My daughter] understands Mommy has to go to work, and that's a powerful example to set for a girl."

"In order to honor single mothers in particular and working mothers around the world, I would have to say, the television industry is particularly compassionate to mothers and children.  Milo's been with me on set since he was born -- on the Practice, there was a daycare. Now he's in school, so depending on my schedule, if I can grab him after school, he can come and visit [the set of Ghost Whilsperer]."