Our society doesn't want to help girls like that [in Black Snake Moan]. They just want to use them.

As a teenager, my favourite rejection was, 'She looks too healthy,' which of course translates as, 'She needs to lose weight.'

I'm so glad I'm not 20 years old anymore. I was in a hurricane. I'm a lot calmer now. I don't cause destruction for myself and others everywhere I go.

I can't think of anything that I turned down that became big and successful.

I think the thing that I always try to do - because it piques my interest - is to play really different parts all the time.

I'm one of those people who loves to fly.

I think everybody who really wants to change things has to allow themselves to be angry in a constructive way, and you have to fully understand the thing you're trying to change. We really need to get serious about this now; there needs to be real, effective programs. I think there needs to be a little bit more strategy involved and a little more realism, to be pragmatic and realistic, looking at the way we as women contribute to the problem. Once the second half of the population stops doing it, it's going to end.