If you want to be an actor, you must have total, ruthless commitment to your art. Don't be ambitious for fame or TV or movies. Art is a jealous mistress and will brook no competitors. Study all the time. Never stop reading. Never stop learning speeches. It will fill you up - define and refine you.

There's a lot of talk about people being abused on Twitter, women being savagely insulted and degraded. I think, 'Why get into that in the first place?' If I jump into a garbage bin, I can't complain that I've got rubbish all over me.

After watching my poor mother being sometimes neglected by my father, it was almost tattooed on my brain that I would never cause hardship or despair to a partner.

It's impossible to have a favourite Shakespeare, since so many of the plays rouse and inspire completely different parts of your being.

Children tease each other because you're short or you're tall or you're a redhead or because you're ugly or because you're smart or because you're dumb or all kinds of differences and as parents we have to deal with that and strengthen our children to be comfortable with themselves and also to show empathy and acceptance towards others.

If a child goes the wrong way, it is not the child who is to be blamed; it is the parents who are responsible.

My family is not so different from the rest of America. I think people love to see that, 'Oh, just because she's on television and in Hollywood, I can still relate to her.'

My kids are part of the rest of my community and my wider family.