I was asked to be in Vogue but I said no. I didn't want to advertise make-up. I didn't want to be seen as a sex symbol.

Exposure makes you famous, not just good work. Famous is being plastered everywhere.

I am not going to share my private life with millions of people. I don't find a need to do that and nobody else close to me does either.

The first thing you have to do is accept that decay sets in and there's nothing you can do about it.

From one till seven, when we moved to England, I spoke only Portuguese. But I can't speak a word of it now.

I consulted a Chinese herbalist and spent two weeks on an island off the coast of Zanzibar. I was away from any kind of contemporary technology.

My parents were hugely supportive like that. I was always the best - it's so embarrassing, isn't it? I was always the best at everything.