Books have always helped me make sense of things. With any life experience, you can find someone who has documented it in a poetic way.

When I was pregnant, I had the romantic idea that after the baby was born I would not only take up reading in earnest again, but also write a novel while my daughter slept in her Moses basket. Of course, I barely had time to keep up with my magazines until she started sleeping properly.

I dropped out of Oxford, and now I only speak Russian with the woman who gives me a bikini wax. See what Hollywood does to you?

I do find it extraordinary that men are so prepared to pay for your dinner here. That simply never happens in England. When I first got together with Len, I couldn't understand why it seemed like he was always trying to get into my side of the car. He was holding the door open for me! I don't know what you teach American men in school here, but you have to keep it up, because it's extremely charming.

I feel like I flunked at adolescence really badly. I found it really difficult.

I think you approach a part the same way and just find out in what's making them tick and who they are. In a movie like this you may have a little less time and few dialogue scenes and exposition scenes for your character to really get that across, and so I wanted to be able to convey that she's not somebody who's just punching a clock but she has this weird emotional investment in her job to where she does get quite myopic and that's what makes her relentless.

The hover cars were terrifying. I manage to make it even more terrifying by having food poisoning on that day as well. Hover cars you can't get out of very easily or quickly, so that held a whole extra element of risk for me."