The loudest voice in the room doesn't always work. In fact, it usually grates to the point - to the point that when you really need to be loud, nobody listens.

I think reading a room - reading the personalities, reading body language - is kind of a lost art.

Horror is a part of science fiction. It belongs in the definition of sci-fi.

Sci-fi is speculative fiction. 'Field of Dreams' is sci-fi.

I read a lot of sci-fi when I was younger. Loved it from the literary point of view.

My mother was a full-time mom, and Dad started his own business. He was a mini-American dream story. Came from Russia at age 4, started his own pen business in Brooklyn. The company isn't around now, but he created his own healthy little world, leaving a decent legacy. My dad taught at Cooper Union but was never fully graduated himself.

When I was a young executive, I was always nervous that my idea wouldn't be great. So I asked around, 'What do you think of this?' That became my filter for whether my idea was good enough. Then I realized it just plain made me smarter.

Women have an instinct for what the market is. We have tremendous insight in terms of understanding products and consumerism.

I'm a chick. I like shopping.

I will never not take anyone's phone call.

Summer is a great opportunity for all of cable. People love to find original episodes.

We may be more sophisticated in how we hide it, but there are still so many phobias in this world, whether it's Islamophobia, xenophobia or homophobia. I've been trying to do things that expose and help teach and draw attention to all of the 'isms' and how we do or don't deal with them in our world.

There's so much interest and curiosity about alien life, interstellar travel. It's always in the news.

Would I like to be the lead girl? Who wouldn't?

I still have my bad days when I think I'm not getting everything I deserve. But those pass quickly once my Mother gets on the phone and says, 'listen, we used to eat rocks and walk 80 miles a day to school.

Hollywood is what you make it; you have to choose company with care because you become what they are.

If I've learned one thing in life, it's: Stand for something or you'll fall for anything.

I think families are so great, because when you go home, no matter what you've accomplished in your life, you still are the person you were in sixth grade to them. You know, it never really changes.

When you fail by your own standards, it's a form of success.

I won't wear fur - never, ever. I'm an animal lover. I wouldn't even wear faux fur. I prefer to go the cheap route and not shave my legs.

But I'm thrilled to be employed, and to work with all my friends and people that I admire. You're just lucky to work - that's the bottom line.

I don't think this is the end of Oprah, it's only the beginning. I have a feeling that she'll probably have her own station, and continue to do what she does.

Oprah was not somebody who was telling us what to do, she wasn't really teaching us like so many people we see today. With Oprah, she was learning and we were learning with her. And I think that's really was the seed that was planted for all of us to just hang in there with her.

I've been so fortunate in my career and my own life just to have all these opportunities, and the talk show has always been one of my favorite formats.

The first time I was on 'Johnny Carson,' I remember being so scared, but the minute he started talking to me, I felt a little more comfortable because I just knew he was going to take care of me. Hopefully, I have learned something from watching him for so many years that I can offer that to a guest.

I don't know if I realized that I was funny, but I realized how healing and important humor was in my childhood.

Everybody knows when you're a struggling family; you don't really know it when you're a kid. But you do know the difference between stress and moments of relief where there's, like, this happiness.

I was a good kid.

I thought of school as a captive audience. It gave me a chance to work on my material.

I grew up in a working-class neighborhood, so there was always a sense of struggle, but we had hope.

I live in this apartment building, and everybody who lives there thinks of me as a housewife. People drop their babies off with me. Or I get notes: 'I'm going to be gone for three days. The keys are under the mat; take care of the cats.' Because they all think I'm home all the time.

I'm right on the edge of getting another movie. It's between me and a famous person. The studio said they're thinking about going with somebody with a name. I said, 'That's great! Because I have one!'

I don't understand the rewarding of behavior that is less than classy. I don't get it.

I don't write punch lines.

Improvisation, if you play it at the top of your intelligence, leads to a kind of truth that people find really accessible.

I remember, when I was 7, my dad found a pregnant dog on the railroad track one day and brought her home. So my mom explained about how this dog was married but that her husband had passed away - she didn't want me to even think that a dog could have babies without being married.

All my brothers and sisters are really witty, and I would just sit back and enjoy them.

If I couldn't be Dick Van Dyke, I wanted to be Art Carney.

Humor is very healing.

In my neighborhood growing up, 8, 10,12 kids were the norm. Those stay-at-home moms would handle so much physically and emotionally. Even in my early teens, I could tell those ladies were something.

When I was in high school, I hid in the back seat of an old boyfriend's car when he was out with another girl. He finally found me, but not until after he had made out with her for an hour.

My home is in Chicago, but I have an apartment in Los Angeles.

When I first landed at Pixar, I felt like I found this creative oasis with John Lasseter... It's what you thought Hollywood was going to be.

I wanted to be a story teller so badly.

Anything Pixar does, you know, I really just am in awe of them and thrilled to be included in anything they do.

The thing about Pixar, they don't do the 'trend is your friend.' They're really about timeless story telling, and that's pretty great.

Chicago has definitely played a part in my character development. I love the essence of the city, the personalities of the people, the hard-working spirit that you need to get through the winters. And every neighborhood has its great restaurants and the local hot-dog stand.

Restaurants in Chicago are seldom disappointing.

I like regular meals and restaurants that will adapt things to your taste. Not a place where they roll their eyes if you want the sauce on the side.

Carl Reiner is perfection.