Keri Russell quotes:

When I was on the 'Mickey Mouse Club,' there was Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling and Christine Aguilera. But they were 12 and I was 17, so there was a bit of an age difference.

Sometimes it's the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.

Growing up, I would say Wonder Woman and Nancy Drew were definite role models for me. Historically, I know Amelia Earhart stands out for me.

People - not just in their teenage years - hold on to this fantasy of love when they're not ready to have a real relationship.

Acting happened to me. If I had pursued it, I think it would have been like someone going to a bar, desperately looking for love and not finding anyone.

I am positive I was not a neglected child. I remember reading 'The Jungle Book' and 'The Sleeping Beauty.'

People expect all women to react the same to pregnancy. But anyone who's been around pregnant women knows that it's not all cutesy and sweet. You spaz out and you're angry and you have tantrums.

I am positive I was not a neglected child. I remember reading 'The Jungle Book' and 'The Sleeping Beauty.

Who knows? Maybe years from now I'll be on a ranch in Colorado with 10 kids. The whole point of life is to experience a little bit of everything, and I think it's better when there are a few surprises thrown in.

Naps are the key to relieving stress. When you are working on two hours of sleep, the fact that cheese comes on something when you ordered it with no cheese is enough to send you crying under the covers for an hour.

I want to be able to raise my kid. I was totally being a martyr about it at first, thinking I could totally do it on my own, which I did for a while. I've hired a babysitter before, but as for a full-time caregiver... for a control freak like me, it ain't gonna happen!

Yeah, I like being on my own. I do. I tend to be a loner, so I'm okay. I'm not okay when I have to be around everyone all the time.

It's sad when girls think they don't have anything going on except being pretty.

Anything that opens you up emotionally is going to impact your acting. Parenthood, becoming a mom, certainly does that.

I know not every mom is a secret KGB spy, but every mom has this whole other life. Every dad and every person has this whole other life.

When you are 16 you are supposed to be doing cool things, like sneaking alcohol, not living in Disney World and doing skits about mice.

Acting is a strange profession, and, yes, sometimes I struggle with its worth, its value in the world.

I am literally the worst person at keeping secrets. I'd be the worst spy of all time.

I was a huge fan of 'Arrested Development,' and there's just something it tickles in me and it's bright and it's hilarious.

People still take it really personally. They come up to me at breakfast places like, 'When are you growing your hair back?'

The kind of hero worship you have, when a parent is lost early and you don't know all their faults and misgivings, is a very strong influence.

Personally, I'm a real wimp with scary movies. I get so scared.

Dance has helped me with everything. It was a great foundation for discipline, hard work and, unfortunately, the ever-elusive idea of perfection. It lends itself easily to fight choreography, because that's what it really is. Choreography. And knowing how to move with someone.

I would splurge on a great pair of high heels, because you can wear them to something fancy, but regular clothes? I'd rather go on a trip than spend $10,000 on clothes, and fly first class as a treat.

I like getting to be in the adult world a little bit and then getting to be in the mom world and cook dinners. And, for me, that balance is what makes it nice.

I am crazy for dessert. I eat everything. No one should be denied anything... just don't eat the whole thing.

I stayed really physical during my pregnancy. I stuck to my normal pre-pregnancy workout, minus the stomach exercises and twisting. I really felt it helped my whole well-being.

I think people like to be thrilled and excited. And a scary movie is a safe way to do that because you're not actually doing it. It's entertainment. You know that you're in the confines of this two-hour space of safety in the movie house.

I'm naturally thin, so I don't have to work too hard at it. I love food, but I also love to work out. I think it makes everything work better.

We all have some version of a fantasy that's easy to escape to, and we all want a real relationship where there's a common give-and-take and you're seen for who you are, and appreciated for that.

I love doing laundry! It's so satisfying. I love the way it smells. I love doing the sheets.

While 'Felicity' was successful in the States, and I had opportunities to do other stuff, I didn't want to do anything to make myself more famous. I wasn't dealing well with the celebrity of all of that. I was 23 - just a kid - and not coming from money, it was all just too much. I just wanted to slow it down a little bit, and gain control.

[ Adrienne Shelly] explain exactly what she was looking for. This was her movie [Waitress].She also wrote the songs that I sing in it. She wrote everything. She chose the colour of our outfits; she designed the set of the diner. She was very, very involved at every level.

[Andy Griffith] is so great. He's just a dream. He's a beautiful man and so professional. I think he had more to say, script-wise, than anyone else, and when you're older it's not easy to memorize lines.

Adrienne [ Shelly] had 100 per cent control over this movie [ Waitress] as a director. She didn't just write it, direct it and act in it, she was the creative force behind everything, from the jokes down to the expressions.

Cheryl [Hines] and I sat through two screenings at the Sundance Film Festival and during the second one, we said to each other: "You know, we don't have to get sad about this. Let's try to enjoy this. Let's just watch it. It's a happy movie [Waitress]."

Dance is definitely what I love doing much more than anything else.

Dear Baby, I hope someday somebody wants to hold you for 20 minutes straight and that's all they do. They don't pull away. They don't look at your face. They don't try to kiss you. All they do is wrap you up in their arms and hold on tight, without an ounce of selfishness to it.

Eating a cookie never feels strange. I am a big believer in food in general.

Everyone should dance more. Everyone should walk more.

Freddie [Highmore] is great in the movie [August Rush]. It comes out this Fall and I play a young cellist, a prodigy, who is touring and doing concerts. She's very young and has a one-night fling with an Irish rocker, played Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who is also a really talented musician.

I can make cookies and do easy stuff. Pies are very specific and hard to do well though.

I do think it [the Waitress] speaks in a positive way for women and it was surprising for me to see it for the first time as a movie all put together with music. I really liked it a lot.

I don't have time for any special skin routines. Many a night I go to bed with the gloppy mascara and all.

I don't think I ate a green vegetable until I was 30. I didn't grow up with a mom who enforced that at all.

I don't think, as a 15-year-old, you're that conscious about a lifetime career. I didn't think: "I'm a serious actor." I never studied acting or anything when I was that age.

I feel better in my mind when I work out. It makes everything better.

I just thought that Adrienne [Shelly] wrote a great character [for Waitress]. It really was all on the page.

I love Cheryl [Hines] so much and had so much fun with her. Off set we got on so well and would tell stories.

I love the complication of the kids in the characters' lives. I love that these two people are very capable in all these ways. They're so trained. They're kind of deadly. They're smart and vicious at times, but I love that they're undone by a teenager, like we all are. We're all incensed and undone by the ungratefulness of a child, and I love that it matters so greatly to them, in a way that it matters to every parent. Teenagers are going to do that no matter where you live or who you are.

I personally adore origin stories - they're so intriguing, learning what shaped and formed a character.

I tend to come home and eat a bowl of cereal. I'm not thinking about baking a pie when I'm off work.

I think I'm probably more passionate about acting now than when I was a kid. When I was young, I didn't know what I was doing.

I think it's quite common and realistic. There are many stories like this [in Waitress]. [Jenna, my character] marriage looks really horrible up on the screen but I think there are a lot of people in bad relationships who wake up and think to themselves: "Wow, how did I end up here? Why am I still here and so unhappy and not satisfied with my life?"

I think love is a great catalyst for many characters to further the story or their own growth.

I think the first time I realized I was actually acting was during Felicity. Before that, I was just going along for the ride.

I think the good stories are those where the character decides to break away and do something different.

I was more intrigued by the relationship [in Felicity]; the idea of these two teenagers who were placed together. What would that be like, and what would it be like to watch that unravel. Living together, and having babies with somebody, missing out on your whole childhood, and then spending all these years with someone. I was more intrigued by that.

I wish I had an invisible plane to take me home to Brooklyn, and I wouldn't have to ride the subway.

I would not let my children act when they are young!

I wouldn't say that my experience making it [the Waitress] was necessarily uplifting, but watching it with an audience, I was surprised at how hopeful it was at the end.

I'm kind of a scaredy cat - I don't watch a ton of them. I mean, I started reaching this script at night and had to wait until the next morning to finish it so it would be light out. It really scared me. The scary movies I like are The Others and Pan's Labyrinth - they're so scary but they're about real things, and hopefully this is too.

It's definitely a unique situation that we're in. And, yeah, it is difficult not having our ringleader here with us to talk about the film [the Waitress], not having our main person here. People are also asking in relation to the film: what would Adrienne [ Shelly] say about this or that? But I don't know. I don't know what she would say.

Sex has never been something I've done in my career - at all.

Sometimes you don't want the truth. Sometimes you're like, "Oh just tell me the good answer. I don't want the truth."

That's interesting to hear you say that because watching it [the Waitress] for the first time at Sundance was fascinating - it was so different from the experience of making it.

The thing I loved about this movie [Waitress] when I read the script was that it was exactly the kind of film that I love to watch. It's not just funny, it's serious, just when you need it to be and true to life in a way.

There's no shortage of female role models. They're everywhere - in history, in literature, in the news. Just look around.

Voiceover work definitely requires it's own specific muscle. And because you're not seeing what you're recording, and all these things are going on, you really have to use your imagination and stay focused and kind of be able to tap your head and rub your belly at the same time.

We shot the movie [Waitress] in 20 days so there wasn't a lot of time to learn. There wasn't a lot of pie baking going on, at least not by me. But we always had pies while we were filming - we ate two different pies every day for lunch!

With a pie, the crust is a real delicacy. It's very hard to get it just right because it's got to be cold and just the right consistency. There's a whole art to it and I haven't learned how to do it [filming in Waitress].There's not a lot of time for cooking, especially when you're shooting nights or working until 11pm.

You don't get to be the bad mom and still succeed at your job and be tough. It's such a good job because it's so rare. It's a really rare job.

You instantly become less selfish. You can't be the biggest person in the world anymore-they are. [Motherhood] really grounds you.

You're not insulting my character. Being a woman, especially in this business, it's so thrilling to get to do that. It's so rare, especially right now the way the film industry is. If you're a girl, the part you get to play these days...because there's so many less movies made...in a good movie, if there's a girl in it, there might be a handful of scenes, and your job is to be supportive to the guy who's messed up. Be the loving rock at home, or be the good mom, or be the attractive person.

Really, it [the Waitress] was a story about believing in yourself ultimately, and caring enough about yourself to change your life.