“I have always tried to be a woman who protects other women. I have a sister, I have daughters, I have girlfriends, and I was raised by a feminist mother.”

The things that go on in my head are far more interesting than what actually happens.

I don’t really celebrate fame because I get enough attention.

As much as I have films and all that sort of stuff, a lot of my memories are to do with relationships and love.

It’s so bizarre, I’m not scared of snakes or spiders. But I’m scared of butterflies. There is something eerie about them. Something weird!

I’m interested in going places that I haven’t been. And I’m interesting in working with people that I feel are dangerous and sort of push me in different places.

To be an actor you have to have a certain amount of madness in you. That’s why, when people meet you and you seem very together, they are quite surprised – they don’t see you behind closed doors.

I dig my heels in every now and then, and think ‘I’m not going to do what’s expected or what people think is the right thing.’ So I have a little bit of that in my personality.

I have a passion for my work, and that can seep into you. It’s almost as if you’re drawn to it.

I don’t believe in having body doubles for a film.

It was very natural for me to want to disappear into the theatre, I am really very shy.

Since I have fair skin, I have to stay out of the sun. I can’t stand the sun. I dyed my hair red for a while during the 1990s but I’m actually a natural blonde.

I believe in continuing to put love and kindness and compassion and art into the world.

I would describe myself as emotional and highly strung. If something upsets me, it really upsets me. If something makes me angry, I get really angry. But it’s all very upfront. I can’t hide it. I’m also loyal and I hope I’m fun.

To appreciate the success you have to have had the failures. You have to accept that it is a journey and its not just tomorrow or the next day or next year.

Stay out of the sun, because it is the worst thing in terms of aging. I’m very medical. I come from a medical family.

Part of the reason of being an actor is you like playing other people’s lives and exploring all the psychologies in that and the emotions.

The hardest thing, I think, is to live richly in the present, without letting it be tainted and spoiled out of fear for the future or regret for a badly-managed past.

I need to find a catchy new word for feminism, right? Like bootylicious.

It’s awful bad luck to bring a woman aboard the ship. It’s awful worse luck not to.

We have to teach our girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible.

I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.

When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

But the true feminist deals out of a lesbian consciousness whether or not she ever sleeps with women.

I am a Black, Lesbian, Feminist, Warrior, Poet, Mother – stronger for all my identities, and I am indivisible.