Both my parents were working in politics when I was growing up, so going on stage was not that great a leap.

I know this is a weird niche, but a lot of my female friends have these strange stories where there their dads have seen the small successes of their daughters and have decided that they are creative as well.

Something that's good in the mini-culture of 'Happy Endings' is that the goal is to try and make each other laugh. There is a pretty high bar, and you want to make the writers laugh, and you want to elevate what's already great material - and also, we're like, 'Who is even watching this? Let's just go for it.'

With agents, I've learned to bring them into the process when I feel confident. You're the only one that can really know what's right for your career. You're on a wing and a prayer through most of it.

Where issues used to be, say, parochial or local in Ireland or England and so forth, all politics is global now because all business is global.

For every African state, like Ghana, where democratic institutions seem secure, there is a Mali, a Cote d'Ivoire, and a Zimbabwe, where democracy is in trouble.

Not for one second do I not, like, pinch myself that I've had a successful acting career for 24 years. I am so grateful. But it's unfortunate that we live in a society that really puts a lot of pressure on women to look a certain way and to age a certain way. I think that sucks.

The emotional magnets beneath home and workplace are in the process of being reversed. Work has become a form of 'home' and home has become 'work.'