If you're constantly frightened of being unhappy, how bloody exhausting must that be?

I'm a very positive person. My grandmother taught me that happiness is both a skill and a decision, and you are responsible for the outcome.

My own parents were very un-neurotic, so I never thought that I had to change enormously in order to become a parent.

People who are exceptionally intelligent are often lonely because there are few people as intelligent as them. I have two little children and everyone says: 'I hope they're doing well in school. I hope they're bright.' And I think: why would anyone want their children to be the brightest? Academia is a lonely world.

America is such a nation of suppressed emotion, and when you arrive in L.A., you can smell the fear. It's the most alien country I've ever been to.

I think it's very important not to grow up with the unhealthy amount of attention that is sometimes put on people because they are 'actors'.

I use my awards as doorsteps. Others are in the office or in little cubbyholes in our library – they go between the books, because they actually look like arty pieces