I received an OBE from the Queen, which probably doesn't mean anything in America but is quite nice in England - the Order of the British Empire for services to drama.

I mean, even my dressing room at the studio has candles and cushions and cashmere rugs and things.

Age is just a number. It's totally irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine.

I've spent years when I've not been in the limelight at all and I'm perfectly happy living my life without being swooped on by paparazzi.

The problem with beauty is that it's like being born rich and getting poorer.

But I have had to give up certain things in my life. One is shopping. Two is lunch with the girls. Three is cocktail parties, and four is studying my lines.

The secret of having a personal life is not answering too many questions about it.

It's no one's fault to be born ugly, but, honestly, must it be worn as a symbol of pride?

I don't look my age, I don't feel my age and I don't act my age. To me age is just a number.

I'm extremely happy in my life. I consider myself to be very blessed.

Life is not life unless you make mistakes

If a train is coming at you, closing your eyes won't save you ... but if you look right at it, you at least have a chance to jump.

She lit fire to the bridges and forts she built all these years, and she walked into it smiling and tears rolling down her cheeks.

Much of the debate over global warming is predicated on fear, rather than science.

Once one becomes a man, he can and must make his own decisions. But I do offer warning. Even a good thing can become destructive if taken to excess.

Without writing, what would I have become? Nothing. In China the individual used to be treated as a screw or a small cog in the revolutionary machine. I wanted to be a human being with a voice.

It is the middle of December now, and we are about to travel to Switzerland - where we plan to ski a little, relax a little, and shoot a Dutch politician a little.

Reach for the heavens, and hope for the future, and all that will be, not what we are.

You can't write something actively trying to please everyone - you're going to end up with watery soup that way. You just have to write stories you would want to read and hope that people like them.

I did not set out to explain the extinction of the dinosaurs. I'm a particle physicist, and I was actually thinking about dark matter along with some collaborators.

When youre young, youre stupid.