You hope that your teenage self would like and forgive your 50-year-old self.

The first big stars, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, you know, these were gigantic stars. I even wonder sometimes whether all music actually comes from women, whether the first glimmering of music is a mother soothing a baby.

I am a coffee fanatic. Once you go to proper coffee, you can't go back. You cannot go back.

I think maybe even one of the reasons I became an actor was actually to hide. I mean, it sounds paradoxical because, of course, people are standing up in a public place and encouraging other people to look at them. So that's not the conventional definition of hiding.

My idea of fun is to sit looking at a blank wall in a cottage, making up stories in utter silence. The thought of going back to work in an office is horrendous.

I spent my whole career in the technology business, and I was convinced of the importance, at a grand scale, of the development of global connectivity.

My company in the U.S., Pratt Industries U.S.A., has grown from scratch to become a billion-dollar business based on recycling, as well as the largest Australian-owned employer of U.S. citizens.

Motherhood was my career. I'm totally satisfied with that.