It's kind of chased away a few demons for me and, um, it's educated me a little bit more.

I guess I judge my films by how pleased I am with the work I do, so it's kind of on another level. If they do well at the box office, then that's great. Then I'm really pleased about that too.

I generally find an affinity with a lot of the people I play and I suppose if I didn't feel an affinity for them then they wouldn't be particularly good performances.

I don't think I'll ever escape the fact that I don't belong anywhere in particular. I've often dreamed about going back to Nigeria, but that's a very romantic notion. It's a hideous country to go to in reality.

I think I'm much less self confident today. I actually went through a quite painful period because of that thinking that I was completely hopeless. But I think that's something that we all go through at various times of our lives and it was quite a sustained thing with me.

It's kind of chased away a few demons for me and, um, it's educated me a little bit more.

We're all outsiders in a way. We're all alone and can become very lonely.

Initially I probably didn't even call it acting, but dressing up or something. As a kid I think you fully imagine the world in which you want to inhabit, so you put some clothes on and just kind of freely imagine this world, and it's a total imaginary world.

Across the board, Australian films need to have a lot more money spent on selling them.

As an actor, to do all sorts of different films is great.

As human beings, of course, we're all compromised and complex and contradictory and if a screenplay can express those contradictions within a character and if there's room for me to express them, that's a part I'd love to play, so much more than a character who is heroic and one-dimensional.

Being in the woods at night is a beautiful thing.

Both my parents are English and I was born in West Africa, and I moved around as a kid, lived in Bristol, lived in Buckinghamshire and Surrey as a kid, and then moved when I was 16.

I didn't get my licence because I wasn't allowed to. But I haven't had a seizure for a long time so I could, theoretically, get my licence. But I'm now just so used to not driving, I'm scared of what I'd do.

I do feel like I'm not entirely an insider.

I keep thinking I should get a phone, because everyone's got one and it becomes increasingly difficult to exist in a society where everyone else has moved ahead and you haven't.

I kind of like the challenge of jumping into totally different spaces and styles and figuring out how to fit in.

I think I'm a bit of a dreamer. I don't like the reality of life to impinge much on my life.

I used to have two double espressos a day. I gave that up, had headaches for five days but now I'm feeling great.

I'm 'of the world'.

I've often dreamed about going back to Nigeria, but that's a very romantic notion. It's a hideous country to go to in reality.

It's a real pleasure to go to work when you're in the most extraordinary surroundings, and working with people who are young and interested and creatively keen.

It's great to blow the image that people have of me out of the water.

People are more likely to pass me on the street without recognizing me, and that's good.

The great thing about stage is that you have a live audience.

To me acting originally became an extension of game playing.

When you're a kid you have this sense of wonder and wholeness and a strong sense of your own identity.

There's nothing like standing in a place and wanting nothing so much as to change but simply not being able to.

As I got further into my career, as a character of color, if I was going to have the types of opportunities I felt I deserved, and continue to have them, I was going to have to start creating those opportunities for myself.

I started off on stage because it was the only work I could get. I haven't been back for 11 years. I think any stage experience is good experience, as far as being an actor is concerned.

I've been uncomfortable dealing with my identity since I was 16 years old.

As an instructor, you must be able to distinguish between poor performance caused by lack of ability or aptitude on the part of the student and poor performance caused by lack of effort. You should treat the first with patience and the latter with firmness. You must never apply sarcasm and ridicule.

Every marriage tends to consist of an aristocrat and a peasant. Of a teacher and a learner.

I wanted to experience New York, to look up and see buildings.

One of the first obligations of art is to make all useful things beautiful.

I'll never forget Spencer Tracy. He only worked from nine to one - then from three to five again.

I am happy. I have a wonderful marriage. I was in a not-great second marriage for 20 years, then I fell in love with Steve, my first husband, again, and we remarried. I wore the dress from our first wedding in 1982 - it was tight, but I could get into it.

Every morning is a fresh breath and blessings.

My current goal is to place a moratorium on goals.

One does not become fully human painlessly.

I'm going to do 'The Social Network Two: The Electric Boogaloo.' And I have a part in 'Beige Swan.' I'm going to be the lead, but I don't dance. I just do a lot of sitting down. It's too tiring to get up and dance around. That should be coming out in 20-never.

You think once you've shown what you can do, and your movies have been successful, that snap, you work. So to discover the difference between guys' roles and girls' roles made me plain mad. It's unjust.

Sometimes, we find common ground; more often, we don't.

I never approach a character from a negative place.

Though miles may lie between us, we're never far apart, for friendship doesn't count the miles, it's measured in the heart.

I'm well past the age where I'm acceptable. You get to a certain age and you are forbidden access. You're not going to get the kind of coverage that you would like in music magazines, you're not going to get played on radio and you're not going to get played on television. I have to survive on word of mouth.

I live my life like anybody else, and people choose to write about mine. And what they write I can't control - when they write lies at least - because the laws can't really protect you unless you can prove malicious intent. So I just choose not to read it.

In July of 2004, I came out strongly against the war with Iraq because it was going to destabilize the Middle East.

You know, my mother's beautiful, my dad was a really handsome man, and there was a lot of talk about looks when I was growing up.