I had a lovely experience once in Africa working with the U.N. when a president of a country met me about refugee issues and said ‘What do you do?’ I said ‘I‘m an actor.’ He replied ‘I heard that was a very difficult job and might not be the smartest job to do.’ It was lovely.

What's risky is living your life and never trying for anything and never doing something brave and never getting yourself scared.

We talk about orphanages, we talk about their countries and differences, and it’s a source of excitement and pride. I’ve heard Maddox explain to Zahara when they are talking about pregnancy, ‘No, Zee, remember, you were in that nice African woman’s belly. I was in that nice Cambodian woman’.

If you have problems, it's something to apologize for, to be embarrassed about, not to revel in. It's the perfectionist in me...That's why people call me the "bossy little thing"-I'm the bossiest person around.

I think I connect to people who could be written off as wild or dark, or who are just full of fire and looking for a place to put that fire. It's an important lesson to learn, and it's something I did learn: you live on behalf of others and you're happier and you have purpose. And you have a great excuse to have all that fire.

Women and girls are bearing the brunt of extremists that revel in treating them barbarically. This is inextricably linked to our overall failure to prevent and end conflicts worldwide, which is causing human suffering on an unprecedented level.

I think every teenager is a hero. When we are young we feel so much pain. Go to school is like going to war, people let you down all the time. Sometimes it's very, very difficult to stay strong, but you have to.