“Tough girls come from New York. Sweet girls, they’re from Georgia. But us Kentucky girls, we have fire and ice in our blood. We can ride horses, be a debutante, throw left hooks, and drink with the boys, all the while making sweet tea, darlin’. And if we have an opinion, you know you’re gonna hear it.”
"Music became a part of our lives when I was so young, that if I’d been interested in it, I probably would’ve exhibited that inclination at four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years old. I never did. And I don’t think anyone, especially after having heard my voice, would be remotely disappointed that I didn’t become a singer."
"We were always told that we were special and different, and kids who are told they’re special and different can become physicists or botanists or anything. Being told one is special tends to breed a sense of potential for extraordinary and rare achievements. We’re all pretty acquainted with the odds against actually making it in show business, but the constant benediction made it seem like it was the naturally ordained path."
"Wanting to be an actor was embarrassing, unlike being a nurse or a fireman or something. There’s no sanctioned definition of acting. What comprises it is mysterious. What it takes is elusive to define. I knew I had all this stuff inside me, all these urges and impulses, and this love for it. On the outside, being an actor appears to be something really different from what I felt it was internally, and up until actually busted the big move to California, I was waxy that acting consisted of having your picture taken in front of a good restaurant in Los Angeles."
(asked if she was trouble during school)"I would say for one or two years of high school I was on the verge of getting into some trouble, or going in the wrong direction. It happens when you get hormonal and crazy. I didn’t, at times, have a lot of supervision, and it’s good that I ended up being so protected despite some of my actions. I went to the University of Kentucky – I didn’t get in anyplace else. It was the best thing for me. I would’ve gotten lost elsewhere. I wasn’t solid enough. At UK I learned a lot about my own strength and self-reliance. Instead of simply reacting to curve balls, I was throwing some really nice pitches."
"Somebody once asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I said, “Me, but more so.” And by that, I meant that I wanted to continue to have the variety in my adult life that I was privileged to have as a child. I happened to have been born in Los Angeles and I have accrued the most time in Kentucky. My family has made its home in Tennessee since 1979, and we also did a couple of years in Marin County [California]. There’s a marvelous synchronicity in my life despite having moved around a lot. In the end, I graduated from the same high school in eastern Kentucky to which my mother and aunt and uncle went. I really believe that I’m designed to be an actor with the immutable facts of this lifestyle – it seems as though what could potentially have been a hardship has actually been sugarcoated for me because of all my experiences."
(on having children)"I have to have a girl. I think it would be a wonderful thing to have a boy, too, because he would simply come through me and would be slightly less me. Because, obviously, when I see a little girl, I’m seeing myself, even though it may not be conscious. And the encouragement I give her is a way of loving myself."
"When I accept a role, I feel that as an artist I have to submit completely to the tutelage of my director. And while I expect to be heard and encouraged and honored, at the end of the day, man, it’s the way the director wants it. And that gives me a great adrenaline rush, because I like the challenge of doing it the way they want it done. If they ask me to do it, I can get to a place where I can deliver completely what they’re looking for – with my own oomph."
(rituals that she has as a woman)"Well, in the mornings when I wake up, I don’t rash into things. I write, and that comes and goes. I’m in a heavy writing phase at the moment. If something big has happened in my life, or something memorable, I say, “OK, time to go back to pen and paper again; this needs to be registered somewhere.” And, I think that one of the rituals I have in my mind is, I seek to understand. Last night, for example, I didn’t sleep. I was trying to understand something, and I had a mental sunrise at about four o’clock. Again, it’s kind of a process, but it classifies as a ritual – if something has happened I am determined to figure out what it is and why, and I’ll give myself the space to accomplish that."
"Yeah, I prayed. There was one thing my mom said to me that to this day I consider to be the foundation of my faith. I was really young and a little
bewildered about some things. She came into my bedroom to say goodnight and I told her I was at a loss, and she said, “Well, what’s the Golden Rule? I’ll give you some time to think about it, and you’ll remember.” And sure enough I did remember: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” In that moment, she taught me that no matter where I am, I know how to live this life: It was probably the greatest gift she ever gave me."
"One thing I did with my dad, which was very dramatic, was play outdoor hide-and-seek. We would play with grown-ups, and they took it so seriously.
When I was in kindergarten Daddy took me out of school for a couple of weeks to go up Highway I with him to the Pacific Northwest. He was turning thirty, and he wanted to celebrate with a bunch of his wild, quasi-hippie friends, some of whom lived on government property in a domed tent. We played out there in the forests, and I was just thrilled and scared to death; I felt like I was the only person on the planet."
"I’m happiest when I’m surrounded by my Southern heritage."
"I loved going into my mother’s closet and trying on her secondhand forties dresses. While my girlfriends dressed as ladybugs at Halloween, I came as a full-grown woman in cocktail attire. By fifth grade I had bought pearlized mauve and gray Borghese eye shadow."
"What I don’t like about interviews is that I’m a very candid, verbal person. And that, to me, makes for relatively interesting conversation, but it can sometimes come back and bite you in the butt."
"I think we are most vulnerable when we express ourselves. We’re not sure how it’s going to be perceived–even though one of my nicknames is Fearless. Also, I get irritated when people have demands on my time. I get really bent out of shape."
(about Matthew McConaughey)"I have the highest regard and fondness and love for him. I mean, I can say that. I love Matthew. He’ll always be my friend. We share something very special. We have a common spirituality, and a practice of faith in common. That gives us an extremely special connection. And we were there for each other at an exquisite time of life for both of us."
"I am counter programmed against that feminine-wile thing. The thought of being strategic makes me want to throw up. To toss my head or bat my eyes–that is not about my essence."
“Abstinence, being faithful and correct and consistent condom use are the only ways to successfully reach everyone when discussing HIV prevention. I believe that the abstinence message alone does not solve the AIDS epidemic.”
“You have so much power to bring awareness, prevention and change.”
“I know what $20 can do, what $600 can do, what $1 million can do, so I’ve radically altered my own spending - I will stay at the airport hotel rather than the $350-a-night one, and then I’ll take the extra money and invest it to accrue interest, so I can later donate it.”
"As a kid, I was skinny as a beanpole, l had good skin, though. When I got a pimple in the eighth grade I told everyone I got bit by a red ant, and where I came from, they believed me."
"I get my hair done if I'm going to a big event, but generally I'm happy with your basic $1.50 cut. Hair is a nuisance. I just wash it, put barrettes in, then leave it."
"I think that the women who say they have sex six times a week are lying just like men who say they don't masturbate are lying."
"Everyday you have a certain amount of feelings that come from an untouchable place. Your feelings are your responsibility and lead to your choices. It's like that line in a poem. I am the captain of my own soul. As my own captain, I feel like my life is unfolding the way it should.."
"Most of the time, I don't find fame scary. I actually don't think about that. I just hope people love the movies. But the fallout which is fame can be a tricky thing. I do want to have a life"
"People coming up and knocking on the bus door on race weekend is not my favorite thing."
"I enjoy being married. We feel very blessed and we're having a great time."
"When I told my mom I wanted to act, her immediate response was, 'No, no, no, no.' When I asked her why she said, 'You love to read books. Become an anthropologist.' Then I said, 'Mom, i'm going to become an actress no matter what you say.' It's funny because now my mother tells interviewers that she knew I was going to become an actress since I was a little girl."
"I was always told I was special. And I was also assured that I had a gift and a purpose."
"My mother's into frilly dresses, frilly eyelashes and hairstyles from the 70s. I'm more contemporary. We always seem to argue about that. She wants me to be her clone. But I have to be an individual."
"At 18, I went to college and it was the perfect environment for me. To a certain extent I had always been afraid to work as hard as I knew I could, because I had always been told that I was gifted and special. If I had to work hard at something, it meant that I wasn't already good at it. If I wasn't good at it, I wasn't special."
"Probably once I thought, 'Okay, I'm just going to have the most rewarding career in the universe, I'm going to have sex with my career.' That lasted about 30 seconds!"
"You just don't flaunt your stuff. Mama says it wouldn't be polite. You don't talk about your love life or how much money you make or personal things."
"In the proper venue, attention is fine but not if I'm on the toilet in an airport washroom."
"I have these little talks with myself. I call it an attitude pep talk. I say, 'Ashley, this is not one of those moments you pray God sends a thunderbolt to make it better. Girl, you just endure.'
"You have to simply be who you are. That is where real happiness comes from"
