What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

I hate quotations. Tell me what you know. 

What you are comes to you.

You shall have joy, or you shall have power, said God; you shall not have both.

“You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men!

The world cannot be wrong if in this world there's you.

If you're really truthful with yourself, it's a wonderful guidance.

“To help a friend in need is easy, but to give him your time is not always opportune.

“What do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning.”

“You’ll find that life is still worthwhile, if you just smile.”

What do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning!

“Not only had I never made any such complaints, but at political meetings, I had given my suggestions to whatever man was sitting next to me, knowing that if a man offered them, they would be taken more seriously. You white women, Mrs. Greene said kindly, as if reading my mind, if you don’t stand up for yourselves, how can you stand up for anybody else?” 

“Anybody can be with you when you’re right, but only friends are with you when you mess up.” 

“You can travel without traveling, and you can not travel -- yet travel. Being on the road is a state of mind.” 

“Then, as if in answer to a riddle posed years before, you will realize that this growth came from seeds you planted or watered or carried from place to place—and you’ll be rewarded in the way that we as communal beings need most: you’ll know you made a difference.” 

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.

I think marriage is all about timing. Getting married is insanity; I mean, it's a risk - who knows if you're going to be together forever? But you both say, 'We're going to take this chance, in the same spirit.

I often have a few scents depending on if I'm playing a character. The character may be wearing a scent that perhaps I wouldn't wear. We've all got different moods and ways we want to express ourselves; scent is a very powerful way to let people in to your secret life.

I'm not interested in playing characters who see the world through my prism. I think the journey of understanding any character is to see how they tick and how they differ from you.

I have the embarrassing thing where often if you're watching a film, you kind of go through the emotions and the thought stages that your character went through, but you sort of do it with Tourette's. So I end up often crying when I'm crying, and looking angry when I'm looking angry, so it's pretty ugly

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.

What I love about the theater is that you know who you're acting for: your audience. And the thing I find really hard in film is, you don't. The audience is invisible. And we're sitting there, hoping there's other people out there.

It's part of my job. You can't play Veronica Guerin sounding like this. It just wouldn't wash. But what I find fascinating about doing an accent - unless it's a farce - is that it's not slapped on.