Stana Katic

Stana: (On Kate Beckett's personality) She's a woman, which means that she's inherently strong. There are all these other wonderful facets to her, as well: hope, sometimes girlish hope; self-doubt; confidence. There's a Joan of Arc quality to her, I suppose. There are different ways of communicating with people in different scenarios. In the workplace, you can really only be one kind of person, whereas with Castle, she has to maintain a certain sense of decorum for right now, but as we move forward and he gets to know her more, we get to see her other layers.

Stana: (On what drives her character Det. Kate Beckett) She was on that typical Manhattan-ite, society girl path, then a personal tragedy struck, and she shifted course, and joined the police force to become a detective. I think she's driven by her need to see justice prevail and her empathy toward victims and their families.

Stana: As an actor it seems we're always living out of our suitcase, never really knowing what's next, which can be exciting, but it also can frame your life in a weird way.

Stana: (on her parents raising her and her siblings) They educated us. They inspired us. They challenged us. We challenged them. They let us travel. They gave us lessons: piano, ballet, karate, and so on. They are ambitious. They're fabulous parents and I'm really fortunate to have them.

Stana: It makes it weird to work in this industry sometimes. When I need to get a moment of perspective, when I feel as if I'm getting ridiculous about something, I'll just go away and try to communicate or become in communion with truth, and then I realize how ridiculous all these worries are. They mean nothing! In 300 years what will any of us or our little problems mean to people.

Stana: When I was growing up, my parents encouraged me to pick a path that was safe and sane.

Stana: (about working on "Quantum of Solace") It was a blast! I really wanted to be a part of that film, and was up for the role of Strawberry Fields originally, but they felt I wasn't right for it, plus I didn't want to play someone who got killed, and everyone gets killed in that bloody movie!

Stana: Acting was always the focus. It's weird, I was asked as a little kid by parents' friends, 'What do you want to do when you grow up?' I think I was four years old, and I said, 'I want to be an actress.' I always knew.

Stana: As an actor, I feel like you're asked to live life as vibrantly as possible.

Stana: The luxury of creativity wasn't afforded to my parents because they had to build a life, and they had to survive, so I feel very lucky that I've gotten to pursue a creative life.

Stana: (on her siblings) We're all oddballs doing different things in the world, and they're all on their way to growing into really interesting adults, although I don't know if any of us will ever really be adults, because we're all really strange. (laughs)

Stana: (about working on Castle) That's a whole new experience, the TV world and the hours you put into TV versus film. We're shooting 10 pages in a day, we're there from 12 to 17 hours in a day, and that's crazy for me. And you have to be on because you're in every shot. It was definitely a stamina-builder but I enjoyed it so much and I learned so much but I can't walk away from it without saying how lucky I am.

Stana: For actors, every time we do a new role, it's kind of like entering into a new sandbox. The only thing that you can hope for is that the person on the other side of the sandbox is willing to bounce the ball back to you.

Stana: (revealing she practiced lesbian sex scenes for the movie "Feast of Love" with Selma Blair) We rehearsed our love scene quite a bit in a private room together. We both looked at the bed, looked at each other and walked into the room and went at it. As a kisser, I would say Selma was very titillating. It was my first time kissing a woman and I had a great time with her. But I reconfirmed to myself that I'm 100 per cent heterosexual.

Stana: Men should never marry their muse. It ruins the illusion.