Actress

I hate the way market forces try to separate us out in to the appropriate demographic - basically in order to sell us things. We need to find stories that we can enjoy together, not separately.

I don't have technique because I never learnt any.

Any problem, big or small, within a family, always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn't listening.

A lot of very beautiful women can be a pain because all they're thinking about is how they look.

Sometimes I get to put on posh frocks and be Madam Glamour, the vendor of my wares. My lovely friend Kath, a stylist, puts me into things I'd never dream of. But my real life is very different. It's very, very home-based - an intense domestic life, that's the core of everything.

I don't think people understand that being poor means you have to work from dawn until dusk just to survive through the day. I think there's some notion that poor people lie about all day not doing anything.

Its unfortunate and I really wish I wouldn't have to say this, but I really like human beings who have suffered. They're kinder.

We belabour, I think, under a very heavy crust of consumerism really.

If you don't want women to do whatever they need to do then you must provide them with food, you must provide them with shelter and their basic human rights.

My appearance has changed a lot over the years, but it has far more to do with how I feel about being a woman.

We need men and women to sit down and talk to each other about sex honestly and openly. That would help us fight Aids so immediately. But our lack of communication is hugely problematic.

When husbands and fathers leave, their wives and daughters tend to value themselves less as a result.

I think the point about ActionAid is what it's asking people to do is engage with poor people in developing countries and understand what their lives are like and understand how the way we live our lives impacts on theirs.

But when I lose my temper, I find it difficult to forgive myself. I feel I've failed. I can be calm in a crisis, in the face of death or things that hurt badly. I don't get hysterical, which may be masochistic of me.

Children don't need much advice but they really do need to be listened to and not just with half an ear.

I think that my work is my attempt, I suppose, is to try and become a piece of connective tissue. I'm trying to communicate with people here and in America - in rich countries - about what I see on the ground in badly affected areas.

My mother has never approved of high heels. As a result, I have never been able to walk in high heels - and they were all I ever wanted. So of course, my daughter has two pairs.

Film is so much to do with perfection and how differently you can feel about someone at the beginning of the film and the end of the film.

The fact is that young people are going to have sex whether you like it or not.

The only way you can have it all is by delegating all the running of the home to other people - which I don't ever want to do... So you do it yourself, and it takes time and energy and effort. And if you give it the time, it's profoundly enjoyable.