I hate the way market forces try to separate us out in to the appropriate demographic - basically in order to sell us things. We need to find stories that we can enjoy together, not separately.

I think books are like people, in the sense that they'll turn up in your life when you most need them.

It’s about time a 55-year-old British woman is the heroine of an action movie. I may have to write it.

It is remarkable how many misconceptions there are here about life in the developing world and I think that that knowledge gap has done a lot to contribute to the imbalance quite frankly.

The trouble is it's very difficult to pin-point the most important thing because Aids affects everyone in different levels of society, differently and you have to respond to it differently.

I've never been on the cover of Empire. I'm very bitter. I've got an award but now I feel sad and cross.

If there's a role you're playing and there's a great deal of material to explore because the person was real then it's a completely different preparation time and message to playing someone fictional.