Paulson: "To not have any hope is where things start to get really bleak. Things are possible. The impossible can be possible."

Paulson: "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."

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

Paulson: "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."

Paulson: "To truly feel seen by another person makes you feel so peaceful."

Paulson: "The thing I worry about for myself is I spend a lot of time alone, and another person comes around and you're like, 'What are you doing here? Get out of here.'"

Paulson: "I love the idea of people walking away with the idea of hope and possibility."

Paulson: "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."

Paulson: "If you heard me sing, you would just plug your ears and run, screaming, the other way. I promise."

Paulson: "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."

Paulson: "I am a person who is not mated."

Paulson: "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.'"

Paulson: "My choices in romantic partners have not been conventional, and therefore, the idea that it is 'other' makes it compelling."

Paulson: "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.'"

Paulson: "I'm not interested in a character's goodness. I'm interested in what makes them human."