I sometimes think it's like a weird elastic band. The more tragic your work is, the quicker you snap back. There's a catharsis in telling a miserable old tale; you get rid of demons.

There are some roles you just don't say 'no' to. Those compass points: you get them so rarely as an actress.

I don't look like Catherine Zeta-Jones, so I don't think Hollywood would be that interested in me, to be honest. I just want nice work.

As I get older, I want to draw on my experience to make roles better. I see that in the older women who inspire me - their experience makes them better.

Nothing is more diminishing than trying to control success or hold on to things.

People at a point of conflict are always the most interesting stories to tell.

You can't worry too much about profile; otherwise, you become a different kind of actor, and that's not the kind of actor I want to be.

There are people out there with three jobs and small children. Being an actor is a walk in the park compared to working as a cleaner overnight. I'm lucky I'm not plucking chickens.

You just grow up and learn to think instead of just feel.

When I started drama school, theatre was the main draw. I never had any movie star notions. Not that there were family ties to the theatre, either.

In theatre, there's the director, the writer, and below them the actor. In film, it's the actors who are most important. That goes against the grain for me.

Ricky just listens. He isn't shocked. He isn't surprised. He listens to me because he knows. He knows the shame and the guilt and the sorrow and the rage. And he does not judge me. He just listens.

As an actor I suppose you're constantly observing. I don't sit in restaurants making notes, I don't live my life in order to then feed it into my work.

Act strenuously, would appear to be our faith, and right thinking will take care of itself.

Goodnight you princes of Maine, you kings of New England.

Working in film, I'm sure you have insight into this, there's something great that only comes by way of interactions with others that a monastic life does not afford.

How puzzling all these changes are! I'm never sure what I'm going to be, from one minute to another.

I know there's some kind of history to mountain music-like it came from Ireland or England or Scotland and we kept up the tradition.

The demands of the present must stand above the political habits of the past.

I read that MTV's Real World got 40,000 applications. That's amazing, such an even number. You would have thought it would be 40,008.

At worst, is not this an unjust world, full of nothing but beasts of prey, four-footed or two-footed?