Despite great advances in women's rights, statistics show that when it comes to the balance of power between the sexes, equality is far from being a global reality.

I think it was Elisabeth Shue who said that if you start a movie with a woman seen through a man's eyes, that woman is objectified by him throughout.

I don't understand why there aren't more powerful female directors. I don't have the answers, but I hope that things may start to shift and that studios will employ more women to handle strong and interesting material.

At school, I always felt the art room was the place where you could sit and talk. It was a place of solace. I wasn't the best artist at school by a long shot; it was more the understanding and the support that came from that room.

Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. Precepts and instruction are useful so far as they go, but, without the discipline of real life, they remain of the nature of theory only.

There's no meaning to life without music. Everybody has their own connect with music.

This can sound as something naive. But if we are together in this union, it's because we choose to be one in many things. That's what makes the European Union experience so challenging and also a model. Why did we do this choice? Because we see that we share a common interest and common values.

Vulnerability is important in life, I feel. That's what allows you to experience intense emotions, whether it's joy or pain or sadness.