[We assume] that the self is an actual living thing, but it's not. It's a projection which our clever brains create in order to cheat ourselves from the reality of death.

I can hardly find the words to describe the peace I felt when I was acting. My dysfunctional self could actually plug in to another self, not my own, and it felt so good.

Crucially we haven't been figuring out how to live in oneness, with the Earth & every other living thing we have just been insanely trying to figure out how to live with each other, billions of each other, only we're not living with each other our crazy selves are living with each other, and perpetuating an epidemic of disconnection.

Having children is life-changing, to state the obvious. It's a gigantic shift in your life and I welcomed it.

If I could change my appearance, I would have the gap between my front teeth put back in.

I never understood the point of juicing - I always thought I could get enough nutrients from eating fruit and vegetables - but now I'm a convert.

If we're all living in ourselves and mistaking it for life, then we're devaluing and desensitizing life.

I don't put the pressure on myself to be a very successful movie star. I want to enjoy being an actor and I want to be challenged by the roles I take.

From about the age of 5, I was aware that I didn't fit. I was the black, atheist kid in the all-white, Catholic school run by nuns. I was an anomaly.

Then I became a mother and it just fills every space, that isn't filled with something else important. It's just like this incredible balloon that blows up and fills life up.

Very often, if you think about what's erotic and break it down, as we're feeling the excitement of eroticism, we're feeling fear. We want to try to dominate our fear and get rid of our fear, so we go towards it and have sex with it, basically. That's really sad.

~I've learned the value of absorbing the moment. I remember the first time Ripley saw her shadow. My God, it was like shadows had just been invented. It was the most exquisite moment.~

I feel like the sexy clothes put a bar between you. It's like putting an alcohol drenched piece of wood between you and the person, and it's inviting them to be able to think and say the things that they hate about themselves.

I see a wiser person than when I was younger: having babies, and passing 30, were the turning points. What women in their 40s - I am 39 - lack in gorgeousness, they make up for in wisdom. I love ageing, despite the drawbacks - thinner, drier skin.