“A lot of the girls were awful, very catty. It was a competitive environment that I didn’t like. You have no idea of the anorexia I saw around me.”

I wouldn’t be a part of anything that had acts of violence toward children. I don’t think I would do a horror film, either. That just doesn’t sit well on my soul.

There’s not an awful lot that embarrasses me. I’m the kind of actress that absolutely believes in exposing myself.

Ultimately, you just have one life. You never know unless you try. And you never get anywhere unless you ask.

Many roads to take some to joy some to heart ache

Life is short, and it is here to be lived.

I do think it’s important for young women to know that magazine covers are retouched. People don’t really look like that.

I look like people that walk down the street. I don’t have perfect boobs, I don’t have zero cellulite – of course I don’t – and I’m curvy. If that is something that makes women feel empowered in any way, that’s great.

I don’t have parts of my body that I hate or would like to trade for somebody else’s or wish I could surgically adjust into some fantasy version of what they are.

I am insecure. If you ask me, everybody is.

I still don’t believe this craziness for being skinny, but I eat sensibly and I don’t stuff down chocolate biscuits.

I was the kid who never won the races. I never jumped the highest. I wasn’t on the list of the high-achieving.

I accept my body. I accept how I am and make the best of what I am given.

Mum and dad were very much friends, and up to life. There was no anxiety for anything when I was growing up, they just taught me to be me.

I’m often moved by the circumstances around some of my characters, but I don’t think I’ve actually cried watching myself.

There are moments to indulge and enjoy, but I always know when it’s time to go home and wash my knickers.

Of course I believe in marriage. Commitment to one other person in life is glorious.

I had all these singles come out within a two-month period, and then nothing for almost two years. You start to feel a little irrelevant. You realize how many people there are trying to be songwriters and how competitive it is and how political things can be.

There are actors who can pull of a writer’s lines; I am not competent enough to do that.

It’s a cliche, but you will always be your most fierce competitor.

Competition is a sin.

In general, if any branch of trade, or any division of labour, be advantageous to the public, the freer and more general the competition, it will always be the more so.

Grind it out. Hanging on just one second longer than your competition makes you the winner.

I don’t follow other players or the tournaments they play. I have my own schedule and do my own thing. I never really think, ‘Oh, I want to be or play like so-and-so.’ I just like being myself.

There is a charm in making a stew, to the unaccustomed cook, from the excitement of wondering what the result will be, and whether any flavour save that of onions will survive the competition in the mixture.