It's a sad fact that a lot of those countries who haven't been involved in the war in Iraq have taken far more responsibility for rehoming people displaced by the war than Britain has done.

I can't spend the rest of my life being pretty in a bonnet.

My alter egos have changed a lot over the years. When I was a child, I was a black horse called Storm. Whinnying and jumping over bamboo poles in the garden took up pretty much my entire childhood.

Female ambition is such a complicated thing to play because it is an aggressive quality, and people respond very badly to women exhibiting any kind of aggression.

I can only do something that my sister or my daughter, if I have one, could watch and feel positive about.

I don't really want to do things that I feel like are going to send out a message that I don't really want to sign up for.

I realise there's an innate paradox in promoting oneself on the one hand and saying, 'Oh, I don't want to be famous,' on the other.

We live in a society where children are expected to become adults overnight.

Motherhood so often comes in conflict with women's capacity to express and live their own lives.

I have always been interested in gender politics, so I'm not that keen on doing things that don't represent a truth about women.

I just don't believe you're capable of being an actor unless you have a desire to experience your emotions in a public way.

Love is like dried flowers sometimes. Even though you watch the petals shrink and change colour, you cannot help treasuring them

I am absolutely convinced that race relations on the whole are actually better now than they were 20 years [ago].

Bad art is never really enjoyed in the same sense in which good art is enjoyed. It is only "liked": it never startles, prostrates, and takes captive.

I'm a huge Kelly Clarkson fan. I think she's great.

Anytime you put yourself in a creative box, it's going to stifle you; it's not conducive to the writing or recording process.

Ajax the great Himself a host.

The present Stimulus Bill sets up the equivalent commission in the United States similar to that which is in England.

Belief and order give strength. Have to clear rubble before you can build.

Shame and guilt are noble emotions essential in the maintenance of civilized society, and vital for the development of some of the most refined and elegant qualities of human potential.

We live in an age of seriously crap mass clothing. They've made a science of it.