Quotes by Jennifer Garner

"My world was a community ballet school, a marching band, my two sisters and my girlfriends. I played saxophone in the band and was a bit nerdy."

"I remember, my mom didn't have any help, so if she needed to be somewhere after school, we'd just go down to the neighbors' and she'd give us a snack and make sure we did our homework. There weren't any latchkey kids."

"My mom was really vigorous about making sure that we saw things and that we questioned things. Education was so important to both of my parents."

"We all have a responsibility to volunteer somewhere and I'm lucky that I get the education and get taken to places to see what's out there and see what's happening and to then be a part of it in hopefully an impactful way."

"My parents came from a poor background and worked their way up because of education. They saw it as a way to succeed. So they cared about me getting straight A grades when I was growing up."

"My mom grew up in poverty in Oklahoma - like Dust Bowl, nine people in one room kind of place - and the way she got out of poverty was through education. My dad grew up without a dad, with very little and he also made his way out through education."

"I don't have this fantasy about marriage anymore. Everyone says it takes hard work. Well, it kind of does - and I'm much more pragmatic about romance than I used to be."

"I'm still really close with everyone at home and their parents - and their brothers and sisters. I was so, so, so lucky to grow up as part of a community and I don't take that for granted. I try very hard to stay part of it."

"I try to eat in a way that makes me feel good. If that means a little bite of chocolate I do that, but I try not to use food as a reward for myself."

"Well, you can't be trying to achieve success of any kind in this business without accepting that there's going to be a flip side to it."

"My mom has always said that the one thing she wishes she had done differently is have a job. She felt like the single-mindedness made her a little nuts sometimes, and she could have used an outlet for herself when we were little."

"There's an internal battle. I need to work, I need to work, I need to work and I need to be home with my kids and the kids win."

"My big sister Melissa, is such a stud and my little sister Suzanna, has always had a perfect body and big blue eyes. We were a force."

"I rebelled by not getting straight A's and not following the path that my elder sister did. She was valedictorian and is very exemplary in her way. I look a lot like her, so I just had to do the opposite. Not that I got bad grades, but I was all about performance and just finding any way that I could to be involved in any kind of production."

"No matter what, it is very tricky and difficult just to be a good parent at all. I have a lot of help. And for that I'm very grateful."

"I hoped, hoped, that maybe I'd be lucky enough to do something on Broadway, in the chorus."

"I do think about aging. I have those moments of panic and vanity, but life keeps getting better, so you can't worry about it too much."

"And now, I still really don't care that much but now I have music playing all the time at home, which is a first for me. Whatever. Everything from Ani DiFranco to Dave Matthews to Jack Johnson and Norah Jones."

"My parents started with very little and were the only ones in their families to graduate from college. As parents, they focused on education, but did not stop at academics - they made sure that we knew music, saw art and theatre and traveled - even though it meant budgeting like crazy."

"But I'll never be one of those women who feel that they always have to wear earrings and aren't properly dressed without them."

"I wish I was one of those cute pregnant girls who wear skinny jeans throughout their pregnancies. But I just gain weight."

"I think that baseball games are like soap operas. If you watch five in a row, you know enough to get hooked."

"I will tell you what I can't abide - and I think the Internet has really created a space for it - women criticizing other women and mothers criticizing other mothers."

"I love the feeling of being on a team, rehearsing together, sharing a dressing room - I love that so much."

"I always, always meant to be on stage. I only ended up even auditioning for television and movies because I was understudying a Turgenev play on Broadway and was so broke that, when I got a mini-series, I had to take it and was so ashamed because I was such a snob."

"I'm privileged, because I have a lot of freedom. I want to use it to make as warm and normal a life as I can for our daughters."

"I wasn't a woman who stayed tiny like I thought I would. I definitely gave myself the freedom to eat what I wanted."

"I know I live a charmed, beautiful life and nobody wants to hear a celebrity whine. The last thing I want to do is complain; I love what I do and I know every job comes with a downside."

"My mother is a big believer in being responsible for your own happiness. She always talked about finding joy in small moments and insisted that we stop and take in the beauty of an ordinary day. When I stop the car to make my kids really see a sunset, I hear my mother's voice and smile."

"Going after 'the bad guy' has not been a real issue for me."

"I thought the divorce statistics would never apply to me. I was beyond heartbroken when they did. But I got up and got on with it. I also kept my belief in marriage."

"I am usually part of any disaster at a wedding if I'm a bridesmaid, which I've been lucky enough to be several times."

"The rule with marriage is the less you talk about it the better, as far as I can tell."

"My sisters both are working mothers. I understand that my being an actress as well as being at home isn't some heroic thing. That doesn't mean it isn't confusing or difficult - especially that question of how you find a balance."

"I would roll up pennies to take the subway to work in Times Square. I was broke, but I was happy."

"Beauty comes from a life well lived. If you've lived well, your smile lines are in the right places, and your frown lines aren't too bad, what more do you need?"

"I am lucky to have had an attentive, curious and loving dad and heart-smart, down-to-earth, gifted mother. They changed the outlooks of their own lives and have never forgotten the people and organizations that helped them dream bigger than their circumstances should have allowed."

"It's about getting the kids up and fed, getting one to school, getting the other down for a nap, going to the grocery store, picking one up from school, getting the other one down for another nap, cooking dinner... I live my life at these two extremes. I'm either a full-time stay-at-home mom or a full-time actress."

"In my teens, I was never part of the cool crowd."