If you educate children, then they are capable of so much - you empower them, you give them choices, and you enable them to create the lives that they dream for themselves.

You don't need to follow trends to be stylish.

It's true about the eyes being the window to the soul. Your face can be etched with worry, and twisted by ageing, but the eyes tell the true story of who you are.

I think there's nothing more amazing than helping people every day.

Actors need steely determination. It's a tough profession with plenty of knocks along the way. You have to be very determined and never take 'no' for an answer.

I'm always interested in telling stories that have a message because I really do believe that film is so powerful.

I like to believe that we all pray to the same god.

Hollywood 'friends' are only after one thing. They're looking out for the next big thing, and they don't want to miss out on you just in case.

I always find filming stressful. I get very caught up thinking about my character - 'Am I doing it right? Should it be done this way?'

I did not enjoy Cambridge. But I shouldn't blame Cambridge alone. I wasn't ready for university or for the wrench of leaving home. It was a big cultural shock.

I try to be upbeat. I read this book which tells you to write down everything that you're grateful for each day. Now I'm constantly noticing all the little things that make me joyful.

When pain brings you down, don't be silly, don't close your eyes and cry, you just might be in the best position to see the sun shine.

You will never understand the real definition of insanity until the day you are told it is unreasonable for you to feel hurt by the very people that hurt you.

Writing is a craft, being an author is work, and having readers and a following is a gift.

The silver-leaved birch retains in its old age a soft bark; there are some such men.

In peace children inter their parents, war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.

I only eat fish - no chicken, no turkey, just fish. I get all my protein from fish and egg whites.

For listening to the stories of others ... is a kind of water that breaks the fever of our isolation. If we listen closely enough, we are soothed into remembering our common name.

But young hearts mend easily, and hearts that own half of England have something better to do than to beat faster for love.

And if anyone asks what became of me, you relate my life in all its wonder, and end it with a simple and modest "He died.

There is no limit to the noble aspirations which the words "my country" may evoke.