"A genius is a person who is seeing further and probing deeper than other people has a different set of ethical valuations from their and has energy enough to give effect to this extra vision and its valuations in whatever manner best suits his or her"

"Critics can be harsh and I think it's going to take me a long time to make people see what I have inside of me and that I really put my guts into movies and that I'm not superficial and that I'm not just a pretty face."

"I think they went with the idea that people know the story pretty much- knowing that he's going to take her when she's going to go with him. Also, the movie is really focused on Achilles and Hector and their battles."

"What I really tried to do with Helen was make her show this sad side of her. She was married off at 16, was so young and living in this castle that can't leave because of how she looks, and married to a man she hates and three times her age."

"The ultimate art form of fashion is couture. I completely geek out when it comes to couture. It shows fashion as it used to be. I don't know how many people can actually afford the clothes, but in a way, that's beside the point."

"I think Charlize Theron is just as good when she is looking really pretty in a movie as when she gains 10 pounds and puts on a nose. I applaud her - good for her that she doesn't care. But she's just as good, whether she's pretty or not."

"I realized through my personal travels how little I know about certain conflicts, because I was too vain or self-absorbed to ask the questions. That's been the focus while I'm in my thirties - to become an accomplished woman, rather than some actress."

"I find period pieces really difficult to get my head around. How can we know what it must have been like to be in Nazi Germany in 1944? The reality weighs on me because I feel like you want to try and honor what happened, but how can you truly know? I have never lived in a war or lost anyone."

"I truly, genuinely like clothes. Making them is an art form, and wearing them is a form of self-expression. I find it very emotional because I can remember moments in my life - my mood, how I felt - through these clothes."

"Sometimes it takes courage and experience to allow yourself to actually go into being someone that you're not, and it's the most liberating thing to let go. I do think that's why I love acting - it's being someone that you're not. And sometimes you're really scared of it, and then once you let yourself go there, it's the best thing ever."

"Because I worked in fashion, I know that I like fashion. Haute couture is a form of art that I can appreciate. I'm definitely not someone who wakes up every day and thinks about what I'm going to wear, but on the red carpet, it's reflective of the mood I'm in, or the movie I'm going to represent."

"I dreamt of becoming a ballet dancer. I studied with the Royal Academy of London for 11 years, and that did not pan out, but my love for being on stage was born there. And then, I actually went to drama school in Paris, France. That's where it first started."

"The real challenge is to give a really nuanced performance and really push myself, to make sure that we see a very complete picture of a woman living with Asperger's. Of course, I'm always intrigued. I learn so much from the show about storylines that actually happen on the border."

"Orlando's a really cool guy. They hired him for 'Lord of the Rings' out of drama school. He's very new at this still and doesn't have a lot of experience. So we were in this together and we've tried to help each other out. We felt very equal which was good."

"I come from a very small rural village in northern Germany, and being an actor never even seemed like a possibility. I thought you would have to live in a big city, or be discovered somewhere, or be born into an artistic family, which I certainly wasn't."

"Television is also a great tool for women. As you know, the best female roles are often on television, so it's a very exciting time. I've really embraced it. The pace is great, but also not so great sometimes. You feel like you have to make sure to pay attention, at all times, to not let anything slip through."

"Her beauty didn’t do her any good and she couldn’t use it in any positive way or manipulative way. I just hope that people will look and see and believe in that hope of love, that hope of freedom, even if it was just for a limited time."

"I don't lie. I would never stuff my bra because it's going to come off and the truth is going to be revealed. I don't like that padding. I try to be completely - if not brutally - honest."

"That's why they call it work, because it's not what you'd prefer to do with your free time."

"You can only be a virgin once. There can only be one first time."

"I'm not a bad parent and partner, even if I make a thousand mistakes."

"To me, there's no greater reward than being around people you care about and can be present with."

"You can't get work without working."

"You really can't take a cat and turn it into a dog, or try and get lemons off an apple tree, or what have you."

"I've found there to be a tremendous amount of East Coast snobbery in the journalism world."

"I feel like I'm the most forgiven actress I can think of, probably because of this short memory people have!"

"It's nice to have a pause to parent and to be more present at home, teaching them how to drive cars and navigate boys and all this sort of thing."

"Well, I didn't really admit that I anywhere until my daughter started school and I knew I couldn't pull up and leave when I felt like it."

"Americans are like Pac Man. We just eat our way through the day. There's always something going into the mouth."

"I don't want to live in a bubble, in my craft or in the world... I can't, I would be cheating myself out of my generation and the world we live in."

"I've always had this unresolved desire to prove that I could get a Ph.D., or contribute something else to the world."

"So now I'm left with cigarettes, and I'm trying to scrape that off my shoe and then I'll be done."

"For me, I don't even like to promote my films but I have to because it's in the fine print of my contract."

"I think I'd be in an entirely different business if it were easy."

"I think certainly directing is a visual medium, but it's also about communication, and a lot of times great directors are lacking in communication skills, which is rather shocking to discover that."

"I'm fascinated by how Hollywood has changed since I started. Today it's about immediate delivery. There's less risk and less art."

"I don't really know how to relate to a long-term day-in day-out kind of comfortable relationship."

"There is something wonderful about coming to terms with time - that it is finite. You want to have as much joy in your life as possible, and you take responsibility for your own joy."

"Because that's what intimacy is: It's a willingness to be vulnerable, a willingness to bite my tongue and a willingness to set an example of what I believe in."

"My parents treated my like I had a brain - which, in turn, caused me to have one."

"I know I've made the right decision when I've followed my heart."

"It's always refreshing to step into another time."

"I bought into the myth that you are not complete without romantic love, without a mate. And it can really distract you from your goals. But sometimes you have to take a leap."

"I would say chemistry between two people is very powerful. You have to fight to keep it, but if you don't have it, you can't manufacture it."

"Blessings come in disguise. And challenges can be a blessing."

"You'll never have any mental muscle if you don't have any heavy stuff to pick up."

"I was really fortunate that I was not in 'successful movies' when I was younger, because whatever's given, there's an undertow that wants to take it away."

"I was very blessed always to find work; even when people thought I wasn't working, I was."

"I had a hard time calling Laurence Oliver 'Larry.'"

"I've always been a daddy's girl, and that's served me well in life; most of my directors have been male."