I went to an all-girls' Christian convent school run by nuns. It was fun, but when I was 15, I said, 'Mum, that's it - I need to go where there are some boys.'

Everything big-budget or stereotypical I was offered after 'Slumdog Millionaire' was a huge no-no.

Young women who want an education will not be stopped

I'm proud of myself. I like the way I'm made.

As the worlds getting filled with temptations, were getting a bit frivolous and a bit fickle.

I'll never forget where I'm from. It's essential to remain humble and evolving.

More than anything else, if you can spend a great deal of dedicated time observing people without judgment, that can be a great way of learning.

The only thing I can pride myself on is making a really good breakfast.

One of my favorite actors is Javier Bardem, he always challenges his previous roles, and basically does the unexpected.

I think it's important to be extremely proud of one's origins, especially when you are a foreign actress with ethnic features.

Here's another secret - I have really big feet. I'm a size ten, so every opportunity I get I buy myself shoes.

I hear they’re all infected with chlamydia, which just goes to show that you really can’t tell who’s got the clam. I mean, look at a picture of a koala…tell me you’re not shocked.

A caterpillar who seeks to know himself would never become a butterfly

If information is power, why are the powerful so ill informed?

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.

You are free, you just don't know it" ~Michael to Sarah

When you have a little bit more of a threat, I guess you just have a better sense of urgency, and for me that's when the best comes out in me

My feeling about my own work is, I could be writing 'The Aeneid' and they would still have to call it chick lit or mommy lit or menopausal old hag lit.

‎"I go to seek a Great Perhaps.

We have a training period; we have certain guidelines and structure. You can't hire talented people and stifle them. That's not the way it works anymore.

The whole secret to our success is being able to con ourselves into believing that we're going to change the world because statistically we are unlikely to do it.