“The things that are important to me – being a mother, a businesswoman, an activist – are all things that were borne out of great passion.”

I don’t love acting; I love chocolate.

When people say, ‘She’s got everything’, I’ve got one answer – I haven’t had tomorrow.

I hate myself on the screen. I want to die. My voice is either too high or too gravelly. I want to dive under the carpet. I’d love to be tall and willowy. I’m short.

When you’re older, you’ll appreciate the advantages of sleeping alone.

So much is said with the electricity of the eyes, the intensity of a whisper. Less is more.

I don’t pretend to be an ordinary housewife.

It’s amazing the gymnastics you can do when you don’t want to do something. How you can force yourself against all the forces of nature. I threw myself backward.

When women stops blushing, she has lost the most powerful weapon of charm.

Success is a great deodorant. It takes away all your past smells.

Acting is, to me now, artificial. Seeing people suffer is real. It couldn’t be more real. Some people don’t like to look at it in the face because it’s painful. But if nobody does, then nothing gets done.

I adore wearing gems, but not because they are mine. You can’t possess radiance, you can only admire it.

I don’t have a set pattern. I take things as they come. Usually with a great amount of relish. I just lay back and wait for it to happen. And it usually does.

Fragrance is an incredibly intimate thing. It can evoke very specific thoughts or memories and is a little different for each person who wears it. I also think it’s the most accessible luxury.

I have been supremely lucky in my life in that I have known great love, and of course I am the temporary custodian of some incredible and beautiful things.

I was born with scoliosis. I have a double curvature of the spine, and it’s forced me to use a wheelchair because the disease has really taken hold. It really saddens me that I can’t ride.

Some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses.

Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death.

To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.

To live fully is to let go and die with each passing moment, and to be reborn in each new one.

Never allow any soul to clips your wings, you were born an ember. You were born a flame.

You are nothing but sheer miracles, born from ashes of women who have walked this earth before you.

Women and girls should be able to determine their own future, no matter where they’re born.

There never is absolute birth nor complete death, in the strict sense, consisting in the separation of the soul from the body. What we call births are developments and growths, while what we call deaths are envelopments and diminutions.

You are born an artist or you are not. And you stay an artist, dear, even if your voice is less of a fireworks. The artist is always there.