The king reigns but does not govern.

The king reigns but does not govern.

In politics it is necessary to take nothing tragically and everything seriously.

I'm constantly intimidated by Shakespeare's work. Trying to decipher what he's saying and holding on to that thought - not just as an actor, but as a human being - is a rigour.

Don't think I'd really want to be a mortician. Wouldn't be getting much back.

I've always been an avid reader. If I don't have a book in the car, I'll stop and pick one up just to have something to read. I don't even remember learning to read.

I need quiet and solitude to work. Darkness is best. If I am wide awake, I can't write.

At those times I got into... I suppose you call it a rut. I used to do comedy, comedy, comedy and I suddenly thought I ought to break away from this somehow.

Your absence has not taught me how to be alone; it has merely shown me that when together we cast a single shadow on the wall.

When I was in college, I was always saying I was a socialist.

I have charity work that I do. I started my own charity, the Friends of the Prostate, and I'm also working on awareness of the deviated septum. I do this because not many people are interested in it. There's also Save the Funnel-web - they're dying out.

Whatever the course, whether the course was boring or interesting to me, whether I was talented in mathematics or not talented in languages, my parents expected A's.

I know why people lie to themselves in life, but I'll never understand the appeal of the dishonest theater where the actor doesn't make some earnest attempt to include their own honest humanity in their collaboration with an author. It's so ugly to me that it hurts sometimes to see it happen.

I have the iPad and I love Words With Friends.

I definitely like clothes as much as the next girl, just not to the extent of people who work in the fashion industry.

Most of us start out with a positive attitude and a plan to do our best.

Christmas is the season when you buy this year's gifts with next year's money.

Don't just drag out of bed every morning. Get alive and awaken your mind and body for the gift of a brand new day gift wrapped with sun light and air. Not just another ordinary day, it is the day of new opportunities.

Yeah, the whole 'One Tree Hill' experience made me realize I wanna write, and produce, and direct as well as act. I'm interested in all facets of the industry.

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much

Live to learn, learn to live, then teach others.

I make a note, set it aside, and hope it makes sense when the time comes to look at it again.

To be a celebrity, I couldn't think of anything more cringe-worthy.

I was often looked at as a leper by kids at school because I was a Jehovah's Witness. They didn't like it - you were 'weird'. And on Saturday mornings, you'd be knocking at their doors. I remember standing there with my mum and dad, thinking, 'Oh my God, I know whose door this is, and I'll have to see them on Monday.' It was terrible.

I should have worked harder in my life. I suffer from a guilt complex.

For me, personally, it has been humbling since I became First Minister to speak to women and girls and have them tell me how much it means to them to have a woman in the top job in politics in Scotland.

You thought the stage, you thought Broadway: that was the pot at the end of the rainbow. The idea of being in Hollywood was like going to the Moon or Mars.