The people I grew up around who I really liked were quick on the draw. It always just wowed me. And my mum would make weird funny comments. I can see in myself her self-deprecating, hippie humour. I can't take myself too seriously.

I just think happiness is what makes you pretty. Period. Happy people are beautiful. They become like a mirror and they reflect that happiness. If somebody walks in the room and they're drop-dead gorgeous and sexy, it's really fun to look at. But if someone is giving of their spirit and they make you laugh and feel good, that's a whole other level of beauty.

But in some ways, I'm like an old woman - lived it, seen it, done it, been there, have the T-shirt.

I can't get caught up in darkness. I just don't. I always want to gravitate towards light. I love picking yourself up or surviving or being grateful for the good stuff and not getting lost in the tough stuff. The discipline is so natural for me.

I can't think of any issue that is more important than working to see that no schoolchild in this world goes hungry.

I make movies. I have a passion. Puppies and daisies don't accomplish anything. That's not me at all.

Being a Barrymore didn't help me, other than giving me a great sense of pride and a strange spiritual sense that I felt OK about having the passion to act. It made sense because my whole family had done it and it helped rationalise it for me.