To be honest with you, a lot of directors can be very lazy.

We're all living blinkered lives, and we're not seeing what's going on and looking to change it. I'm not saying that everyone has to make a political statement, but we need to be more aware of what's happening and why.

To be honest with you, a lot of directors can be very lazy.

You've got all these books on self help, getting to know yourself, doing the right thing, eating the so-called right foods, even down to what books you have on your shelves. People are encouraged to look to themselves first as opposed to being a part of society.

Some directors cast you because they trust you to do the performance - but then they forget to direct you.

Catholicism played such a huge part in my life, I would not have survived without my faith.

Everyone wants to look their best, everyone has dreams of wanting to look like something else. But we are who we are.

For anyone who's been in care, successfully coming through the system is nothing to with money or success; it's the ability to feel love and be loved in return.

I am proud of what I've done.

I believe it is my duty as a performer to raise issues in the world of things we're afraid to look at.

I have worked very hard on being aware of my childhood but moving forward and not letting it bring me down emotionally. That is a hard thing - especially when you have children of your own and you remember what happened to you at that age.

I like to stretch my acting muscles.

I think anybody who has been abused as a kid - and I was abused as a kid, by various people - will say it's irrational because violence is irrational.

I want to prove that you don't have to come from Oxford University or Rada - and you don't have to have parents that support you - to succeed.

I was angry but not at God. I feel that you are closer to God when you are messed up. Definitely. That's when you most need God, and God cannot control what man does.

I was physically abused and I retaliated.

I will check the internet for at least an hour every morning scanning worldwide news to do with child abuse. So if you're constantly putting yourself in an environment where you're checking up on social economics or homelessness problems, if you keep yourself aware of it, you don't really have a day off.

I'll never get a part in a huge action blockbuster.

I'm an actor. That's what I'm gifted at. It's what makes me breathe.

I'm not a writer. I think I can write short stories and poetry, but film writing, brilliant film writing, is a talent - you can't just do it like that.

I've been in front of a camera since I was a little girl, and that's the medium I understand.

It's like I understand images and some people understand poetry.

It's not about the money with me.

My mind boggles at the amount of violence inflicted upon children in today's society.

People often ask me, was it hard to play this person or that person? Well, no, not really. Acting is what I do. It's my job.

What shocks me is that so many people leave care and become homeless, and when you're homeless you get into crime, prostitution and drugs, and it is a vicious circle. That's what we need to change.

When you've been raised in care, rap music isn't just about guns and sexism. They're talking about real things you can hang on to, problems of identity that you have sympathy with. It's not just about the music, with rap: when I was in care, it meant a whole lot more than that.

I think anybody who has been abused as a kid and I was abused as a kid by various people will say its irrational because violence is irrational.

The more visionary the idea, the more people it leaves behind.

I'm a sarcastic person, and people don't get my humor sometimes.

To read a novel is a difficult and complex art. You must be capable not only of great fineness of perception, but of great boldness of imagination.

The most difficult story that I've ever been involved in breaking on any of my shows was 'The Constant' episode of 'Lost,' which was when Desmond was consciousness-traveling.

The key to a good meal is simplicity and the right seasoning.

Writers are always writing about infidelity. It's so dramatic. The wickedness of it, the secrecy, the complications, the finding that you thought you were one person but you're also this other person. The innocent life and the guilty life. My God, it's just full of stuff for a writer. I doubt it will ever go out of fashion.

My No. 1 priority is growth in the economy. Tax reform will be our first and most important part of that.

When my mother talked about her brother, there was this light in her eyes. I thought, 'This is the basis of a novel.'

I'd say I am partial to women.

I think I have the nicest fans in the world, and I quite like being surrounded by people if we're all feeling the same emotion in the same room.

Weddings remind us that our lives have meaning and that love is the strongest bond, the happiest joy, and the loveliest healing we can ever experience.

There is no love which does not become help.

We have a plan that creates universal access programs at the state level which allows folks to access insurance if they're denied by their insurer.

I gauge success in years, not weeks. The weekend box-office approach to book launches is short sighted and encourages crappy books.

I was in a production of 'Macbeth.'

Religion is not something separate and apart from ordinary life. It is life -- life of every kind viewed from the standpoint of meaning and purpose: life lived in the fuller awareness of its human quality and spiritual significance.

I feel like a tree. A tree doesn't feel a duty to start doing something about the earth from which it comes. A tree just has to bear fruit, and leaves and blossoms. It doesn't feel grateful to the earth.

Nothing is more exhilarating than philistine vulgarity.

The aim is to postpone frailty, postpone degenerative disease, debilitation and so on and thereby shorten the period at the end of life, which is passed in a decrepit or disabled state, while extending life as a whole.

I hope my daughter, and one day my granddaughters, will be at Dodgers Opening Day.

I started off thinking that I just needed one shot to prove myself, but then I realised that I was only going to learn about acting by doing it.