Cate Blanchett

The great thing about not being American is that you don't assume you know what a Southern accent sounds like, so you have to be specific.

I think sometimes when you're working consistently in film, and maybe this is just me, but you do feel quite dislocated from your audience.

Obviously, if Woody Allen calls and says he wants you to read a script, of course you read it.

I don't like to reduce a role to fit me. The challenge to me is to expand to it. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. But that's the challenge of it.

I'm of the opinion that it's okay to be silent, to not speak if you don't have anything to say.

I'm very fast.

I'm either sitting very still or running very fast.

Things present themselves to you, and it's how you choose to deal with them that reveals who you are. We all say a lot of things, don't we, about who we are and how we think. But in the end it's your actions, how you respond to circumstance that reveals your character.

If you only exercise your soloist muscles, the other muscles quickly atrophy.

What happens a lot in film, though not so much in the theatre, is that you get stroked and sort of massaged, like a little guinea pig.

I'm constantly humbled.

I have a very healthy relationship to my work, and I find that if a scene is working, no matter how intense it is, you have the catharsis on screen, and you can let it go. I think it's, if at the end of the day you feel like you haven't cracked it, that's when you go home and it's more difficult to switch off.

People tend to look great if they feel great.

I'm so misunderstood!

You know you've made it when you've been moulded in miniature plastic. But you know what children do with Barbie dolls - it's a bit scary, actually.

You can't really achieve anything in three years.

I think the more you do as an actor, the more facility you have to switch on and off.

I don't mind not looking conventionally - you know, attractive if that's what the part requires.

When I have my moments of insomnia, you'll find me on style.com.

I'm incredibly lucky that my profession allows me to be where I choose, really.