"I've always wanted to be an actress, ever since I was a little girl. I've always played the mom and I play my sister as the daughter. I wanted to be an actress on television and movies instead of just around the house."

"I've been a ballerina since I was two, but I've always wanted to be an actress."

"ER was one of my favourites. I played a car accident victim who has leukemia. I got to wear a neck brace and nose tubes for the two days I worked."

"My favorite actresses are Cameron Diaz, Julia Roberts and Julie Andrews."

"Acting is what I love to do. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I don't think of it as work. It's really fun for me."

"I think what has helped me is that I've never thought of myself as a child star. If you think of yourself like that, you might have problems!"

"I think I am the same kind of person I would have been if I wasn't an actor. I am not a robot."

"As much as movies are about the words that you're saying, they're also about what's not said, the silent moments."

"Most child actors, once they hit 18, once they hit 21, that's it. Even teenage kids often don't make the transition."

"Being an actor is fantastic because you get to live your dreams and all of that, but I always think it's slightly irritating when you hear from the outside world, and people are like, 'Yeah, well, if I was an actor, and all I had to do was look good, I could be that ripped, too.'"

"The appearance and retirement of actors are the great events of the theatrical world; and their first performances fill the pit with conjecture and prognostication, as the first actions of a new monarch agitate nations with hope and fear"

"In Wales it's brilliant. I go to the pub and see everybody who I went to school with. And everybody goes 'So what you doing now?' And I go, 'Oh, I'm doing a film with Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins.' And they go, 'Ooh, good.' And that's it."

"I'm intimidated every day I go on the stage and everyday I go on a movie set. It's terrifying and I always want to reshoot the first day or the first week, I'm so terrified."

"I remember growing up knowing I wanted to be on the stage. I wanted to get to London as soon as possible and start auditioning for theater."

"I may be the first actress to admit that beauty doesn't hold you back. I think beauty is a gift that you have to make the most of. I've worked hard at trying to look my best."

"I don't know, 'Zorro' was just so great for me because, knowing where I came from, everyone spoke Spanish to me, like, forever after that. And I'm, like, from Wales."

"I'm not always the nicest person to meet, because I forget very easily that I'm an actress when I'm not working."

"I did important films when I was very young."

"Being an actor means being an instrument for someone else. I want to give myself completely."

"A lot of actors don't like to see how they've done every day."

"When I first see the dailies, I look only at myself, but then you start to see the scene."

"I didn't devote my life to acting. I give a lot to my work, but my life has always been more important."

"I never hoped that both my children would become actors. I expected them to do something else."

"It's always difficult to play a scene of physical violence because you're always afraid that you don't know your own strength and might hurt someone."