Jennifer Aniston Still Believes in Love

Despite the attention her personal life inevitably attracts, and the subsequent opinions on her single status, Jennifer Aniston is far from lamenting her romantic luck. "I think it’s important to have closure in any relationship that ends — from a romantic relationship to a friendship," she tells Australian Harper's Bazaar. "You should always have a sense of clarity at the end and know why it began and why it ended. You need that in your life to move cleanly into your next phase. I’m still a romantic. I still believe in love."

On being lucky in her career: "I don’t know. I’ve never sat and plotted out how I was going to become successful or famous. I just really wanted to work — to do good work — ever since I was at the High School of Performing Arts in New York. My Russian acting coach told me I was a disgrace to the Moscow Theatre. So I was determined to prove him wrong and do good work. I’ve never had my eye on a prize. I really wanted to enjoy the passage of time. Before Friends and the success of that I have a graveyard of sitcoms that, thank god, you don’t know about. I was happy to get a job every year, whether it went on or not."

On women doing too much: "Oh yeah. I think that’s because it’s just instinctual as a woman to be the caretaker of your home. Women complain that men don’t do enough, but it’s your own fault. You train your man to do nothing. You can’t blame someone for not knowing what his or her job should be if you don’t ask for it right off the bat."

On lasting relationships: "I think it’s laziness. I really do. I think a good relationship is about collaboration. That’s the way to go in a relationship. I think you just need to talk to each other. Say what you need. Say what you want. That way it’s not threatening. You just need to say, ‘This is important to me.’ Don’t expect your mate to read your mind."

On what she would be doing if not acting: "Sure, I always thought it would be fun to own a restaurant. My family is Greek, and many of them own restaurants and coffee shops, and I make a great baklava with my grandmother’s recipe."

On her friendships: "I have great support and great friends. My close friends are important to me, so I make time for them. I’ve always wanted good friendships and they have supported me, through good times and bad. It’s also good to have something creative, a creative outlet. I loved having work to go to."