I wasn't a girl who grew up wearing dresses, but I was always attracted to fabric. When we'd go to a shop, the fabric I'd pick was always the most expensive. It was always the silk or cashmere. It was something in me, that desire to choose quality. It's the same now.

Richard [Ayoade] likes working with people that he knows. So, I already knew all of the crew and practically everyone and we all felt comfortable. It's nice to be able to go into somewhere where there's no pressure, and where people are supportive and believe in you.

I had a hard time at school because I worked, so I was quite often out of school, which meant that I didn't make many friends. It can happen to child actors, because you're not in the school environment. And I did miss that school environment and being around people.

I do focus my energy on music, but it's just the way that the industry works. I kind of have to take what I can get when it comes to acting and show up so they'll hire me. And music I get to do when I have time. It's not that I focus less, it's just the way it works.

Every show is unique; some shows have the master plan and have everything figured out and that's just the way they do things. It's like high school. Some people write their papers the second they get their assignments, and some people write it the day after it's due.

When it comes down to it, at the end of the day, I need more out of my life and I need to push myself harder. And if at the end of the day I don't have it, then I don't have it, but at least I'm going to put myself out there. If I fail, I'm going to fail terrifically.

Politics scared the crap out of me because I didn't grow up in a family where we talked about anything, really, except, 'Pass the peas, and do this.'... We didn't really have political discussions at the dinner table. I didn't learn how to watch or listen to politics.

It's so important to create roles and characters and projects that feature black people in a way that's not specifically targeted towards the niche market, which is, like, a black movie is created, and it's produced and pitched so that only black people will watch it.

The first time I landed in New York and got a cab to my hotel, I was completely struck by it: a feeling of life and chaos, 24 hours around the clock, just like in London. And whatever your problem is, it's insignificant. You're just a small part of something very big.

(UGO, about Crank) I see the addiction to video games because you want to win them and it's just hard enough so you'd want to keep playing it over and over to try to figure it out. I definitely feel the movie is like a game at times but I'm not a huge videogame lover.

I think there are rock stars within every subgenre, and for people who are obsessed with musical theater Sutton Foster and Audra MacDonald are like Beyonce to them. I'm sure the a cappella world has their own version of that, and that exists in every geeky subculture.

I'm really excited to share cabaret, the art form, not just with the generations that are above me, but also my generation and the generation under me. I think it's an art form that's incredibly important, and I think that my generation is a little unfamiliar with it.

I think part of becoming a wonderful actor and part of defining your craft is defining yourself and being confident in yourself, so when the hard knocks come, and you don't get a job for five years, and your ego is being kicked around, you can pull yourself out of it.

I think creative people need to do a bit of, you know, tuning into every radio station - you just do, otherwise you don't know much about other people. You kind of have to learn a bit about yourself so you can work out how we all behave and why we do the things we do.

Somebody said something really smart: It's like you end up being the defense attorney for your role. Your job is to defend their point of view. You're fighting for what they want. You learn that in acting school - it's Acting 1A: 'What do you want? What's in the way?'

I have just been working with Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is also a mum, on a movie called 'Hysteria.' She is everywhere because of the nature of film work. Not that I'm name dropping or anything like that. I have to pinch myself when I remember who I've been working with.

I just always feel that you need Degree deodorant when you have those moments whether they are embarrassing or whatever, but every day you should be protected. I wish that maybe I had a type of celebrity to look up to when I was young telling me what to use and stuff.

So I was always passionate about it and felt that it was sort of the golden thread inside me in terms of what I was supposed to do in terms of work but I think I have relaxed a lot in terms of the actual experience and actually enjoy it more and enjoy the people more.

There are those who maintain that in this world women have no right to interfere in the affairs of state, in politics, in plots and counter-plots. Others that are who, more chivalrous, are willing to admit that women have as much right to act, think, and speak as men.

I'm really eager to go back and do some theater. I would love to do some more comedy as well because I think that's really the hardest thing to do; it's what I grew up doing, and I would love to go back and do that. I did a lot of theater growing up - musical theater.

Our marriage is grounded in the word of God. That's really it. God is the core of our marriage, and the foundation and the blueprint for it is how we live, and being open and honest and communicating, but ultimately doing what pleases God, and not in a selfish manner.

I never really think about my gender, first and foremost - until a door is closed to you. Until you can see a parallel opportunity with a man in a similar place in his career and you think, That opportunity is not open to me or my fellow actresses. That's interesting.

I think what's so great about TV is I don't know if all these things were planned at first, or if they see the fans' reactions to things. They really do listen to what the fans want, and feel strongly about, and push for, so all these things are happening organically.

I think if we were going to worry about teen pregnancy being glamorized, we should worry about shows like 'Teen Mom'. If people are going to want to have children at a young age because they see it on TV, I think that depends on the type of person you're dealing with.

Every time I start chasing my tail, and I'm trying to control all these elements of my universe, I pray, 'I'm not in control of any of this. I can just do the best I can. Please guide me. Please help me figure how I can move through this in the way You would have me.'

If Mad Men had taken place in the '90s it would have been just as believable. But the fact is that was the perfect storm and with the fashion and the sets and the writing and the actors it just all made sense and it just was one of those things that you can't explain.

I do find that if I go out for a meal I can be listening to a few conversations at once all around me. It can drive my partner bonkers a little bit. But it's about being able to tell a lot of very different stories as well as you can and I do genuinely love what I do.

I've been eating tons of organic foods, staying away from processed sugars, white flours, and anything artificial. It's the same as my normal regime, but I'm being even stricter, because everything I put into my body is literally building this precious baby inside me.

Beauty is about Accepting yourself for who you are. It's about feeling secure about yourself. It's about feeling so blessed everyday that we are given the chance to live. All those beautiful feeling and positive energy inside you, now that is what makes you beautiful.

My mother Vivian Ayers always instilled within her children that our opinions, our thoughts and our ideas about what was possible was important. My mother made me feel that I was important as a thinker at four-years-old. And I instill that within my students everyday.

Americans have an interesting conundrum, a black and white line: You're on one side or the other of Puritanism or licentiousness. But that gray area where people abide, between their ears or on the Internet, needs to be fleshed out more in terms of permission granted.

'Thank you' is often an admission that you needed something that wasn't being fulfilled or you couldn't do on your own, so you needed someone else. There is also guilt. We think, 'Well, too much time has gone by, and it doesn't matter,' but it does. It always matters.

You just do it. You force yourself to get up. You force yourself to put one foot before the other, and God damn it, you refuse to let it get to you. You fight. You cry. You curse. Then you go about the business of living. That's how I've done it. There's no other way.

But one of the hardest things for me to do was to access anger. I could do it on stage. But when I did it on film it was hard for me. That probably has to do with the intimacy of film. And my own personal issues with expressing anger. So I had to learn how to do that.

There is all the difference in the world between departure from recognised rules by one who has learned to obey them, and neglect of them through want of training or want of skill or want of understanding. Before you can be eccentric you must know where the circle is.

When I was four, we had to choose a musical instrument to play at school, and I chose the cello. I played until I was 18, and although I found it nerve-racking to play solo, I loved playing in an orchestra. When I left school I didn't carry on with it, which I regret.

I try and intellectualize a lot, which she does as well obviously. She's very determined, I am as well. I like to think that I am very loyal in the same way that she is. Bit of a feminist in the same way that she is. I will speak my mind in the same way that she does.

When I read 'Greenberg,' I had a really strong sense if I could be any kind of writer I wanted to be, I'd be this kind of writer. And I felt like, even in my experiences, what writing I had done, even on a small scale, when it was good, it shared some quality with it.

My golden time is after I drop the kids off at school. I'm usually working on my website (lifestyle site Goop) and checking emails but I try to do something at least once a week - like a facial or a visit to the osteopath - something to bring myself back into my body.

It's funny, because even though on a drama like 'Picket Fences' those long monologues would stress me out, doing special effects where there's a green screen and there's nobody there to to react to and you have to recite all this dialogue, it's so much more difficult.

With young people, I always say, 'You're not doing anyone any favours by withholding your power.' As women, we do that a lot because we are afraid of being misunderstood or perceived as too strong. But the older I'm getting, the more I realise you have to let that go.

You've got these big studio films and these tiny independent films now. It's very much either/or. With the independent films, it's always a beautiful risk - it might never be seen. With the studio films, you're conforming to the formula of what's always been in place.

There's no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't be in the position that I am if I didn't have my 'One Tree Hill' fans. They're the most dedicated, devoted fans. They're behind you no matter what. If one person says one bad thing about me on Twitter, they're fighting back!

Well, I don't know if this is true of everyone, but I have this relationship with my parents where, despite however mature or articulate or grown-up I think I've become, as soon as I go home, I turn into this petulant 13-year-old, especially with the tone of my voice.

When it's easy, it's great. But when something bad happens is when you really learn. It causes self-examination, it causes you to take a look at yourself. You naturally start analyzing. It's not that you're wrong; it's that sometimes you just need to make adjustments.

I'm not a person who naturally loves to wake up in the morning and go 'Yeah, I'm going to work out for five hours - wooh!' Like, that's not my thing. I'm from Texas. I like to eat carbs. I like to chill out with my friends and do anything but 150 push-ups and sit-ups.

My grandmother spoiled my father rotten, and he grew up expecting women to do whatever he wanted. When he married my beautiful mother, Elsa, he expected her to give up her career as a champion ballroom dancer and become a good wife and mother, which she dutifully did.

My husband would say my signature dish is pasta with a tin of tuna plonked on top. So, no. Although I make a good bangers and mash. I have been known to stick cocktail umbrellas in it, take a photo and send it to James upstairs with a text saying, 'Your food's ready'.

Maybe when we were shooting in the school, I was feeling more like it. Every time I go back to a school for work, I always feel so huge. Everything seems so little. The lockers seem smaller than I remember and the length of the hallways seem shorter when you're a kid.

I think it's always hard to find great roles, no matter what age you are. So I always say to people, 'You have to remember that Hollywood is in the business of making movies that they can sell tickets to; they're not in the business of finding great roles for actors.'

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