"Find your inner idiot."
(on her secret to success)

"Motherhood is my favorite topic. In private! But publicly, I don't want to talk about it. Because I don't want to draw any extra attention to her. She didn't choose to be born into... You know. She deserves her anonymity!"

"I just think anything as momentous as motherhood changes your perspective on life. It's absolutely amazing. And it's my favorite topic, but I don't really talk about it publicly only because I want Olive to be as protected as she can be from the craziness of the business."

"I'm a private person. Talking at all about your personal life opens the door and shines a light on it, and it feels good at the time, because you please the journalist. But at the end of the day, do I go see a movie because I know the private life of the actor in the film?"

"We're in New York now and it's great that I can walk around and no one really cares. I love that fact. In Los Angeles, it's a bit different because the paparazzi really does follow you around. In New York, you're just a face in the crowd. I'm someone who likes to keep my private life as private as possible. So, I don't go to places where the paparazzi tends to be at all. I feel like I have my own life away from all of it."

"Do I work out? Gosh no. I'm not a big fan of that. So how do you look like this? Um. I don't like to say it but I am fortunate in that I just have good genes. My mum is small and so am I."

"When you're younger, being a redhead is... well, my two brothers teased me no end. So I was really excited to see a redhead on film. But also my mum was in amateur dramatics and I would go every night and sit in the wings and watch her on stage, so... I saw practically what it was like – the excitement and exhilaration of being on stage, backstage, watching make-up being put on, the costume changes."
(on Ann-Margret)

"I'm choosy, definitely,. I've made a lot of product in my life that I'm not proud of. I've had to work. Now that I'm fortunate enough to get to choose, I'm fussy. Now, I don't have to make decisions as much from fear. It's given me freedom."

"I miss Tim Tams and Bondi Beach and the smell of suncream. I think if you were to generalise about an Aussie then I'm an example of one."

"There are different figures of women I would like to play. I would have loved to have played Katherine Hepburn and Cate Blanchett did such an amazing job. Every woman would love to have played Joan of Arc... all the great ones get taken, let's be honest. I would have like to have played in Babe 3, that pig in the movie, she had some great little squeals. I do a great pig noise."

"I would love to play Lady Macbeth. It's the greatest role in the world – 'Out down spot! I mean, 'Out damn spot!' Doing theatre in London is a dream of mine, but I'm enjoying doing comedy right now."

"There's no way I'm going to worry about missing out on work - or the pressure to lose weight. I'm fully booked up in my personal life and I can't see beyond that. I'll be focusing on colouring books for kids."

"Oh, I always thought I'd be living in Hollywood, in a seven-bedroom house with a massive swimming pool. It's just that when I imagined it, I always thought I'd be the maid."

"You can't underestimate how traumatic divorce is for the children. When your parents divorce, it makes you grow up fast. I'd urge parents to strongly consider working things out. I'd work things out and I'd definitely stay put. Especially if there were babies involved."

"I think there is a lack of quality roles for women in comedies. Most actresses get cast as the 'eye-roller' or 'the serious one', while men in comedies get to do all the fun, silly stuff and muck around. Sometimes you just have to search hard for a role or create one for yourself."

"I prefer stories that are real and grounded, set in real life."

"I think kissing scenes always feel awkward but there's just no way around it. But it's a part of the job."

"I have very eclectic taste in music. I like everything from Nirvana, which is featured in the film, to world music, to orchestral and jazz. For me, the 90s were about Oasis, because I was travelling around Britain when that band exploded onto the music scene."

"I still write. I'd love to write more trashy chick-lit. At the moment I just rewrite my own lines, which probably annoys most directors - though, thankfully not Adam Brooks!"

"I love great, flawed characters - with them you can really inhabit the emotional landscape."

"I don't have many boundaries on what I'll joke about in my personal life."

"My first job was collecting horse poop, and putting it in sacks. And selling it on the other side of the road. For a dollar! And it's quite a lot of work. I would say that seventy poops go into one of those big sacks. And let me tell you, you have the gloves on at the beginning. And then you think, this is taking too long. And before you know it, there are no gloves! And you're just picking up the poop. But it's dried poop, rest assured. I'm going to regret saying that! Too late!"

"Tweezers, because I can look like a she-wolf if I'm not careful."
(on what beauty tool she'd grab if her house was on fire)

"I love it when a beautiful designer dresses me. But these days, it's more like getting in the car and realizing the burp cloth is still on my left shoulder."

"I had a director who had the vision to imagine me playing someone other than a bipolar nymphomaniac."
(on the director of The Lookout)

"I don't think you ever get it 'down' down. Because when you get emotional, or cry or get angry, you tend to slip back into your own dialect. Because your mouth is a muscle, and it forgets."
(on her American accent in Definitely, Maybe

"I haven't worked at all really during my pregnancy except today. I'm just concentrating on finding a rug for the living room -- if I do that, I'll be very happy with myself."

"I've played some pretty wackadoodle people. I really hope that I'm not channeling any subconscious ideas about myself."

"Instead of 'Hey, Honey, did you pick up the dry cleaning?' it was 'Did you get beaten up? Are you getting sued? Is there a warrant out for your arrest?'"
(on Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat promo cirquit)

"I don't particularly want an Oscar, I just want to have fun."

"It was difficult to get a rapport in the beginning with Vince Vaughn, because my eyes met his belly button, he's so tall. Im only 5ft 2in I'm circus-freak short and Vince is 6ft 5in. But once we started performing together, it was great."

"I am still learning about Judaism and I love it."

"Yes, I'm studying it at the moment and I'm really enjoying it. My best girlfriend, Arlene, studied theology and got me interested in religion. She's quite an expert. I started studying religions years ago and became fascinated by it all. Judaism is such a beautiful, old religion thats so rich in culture. I don't come from a religious household, but I did go to a Methodist high school. I've always had a strong spiritual sense."
(on Judaism)

"Actually, my co-star Rachel McAdams just won the MTV Award for Best Kiss, so I think I'd rather kiss her. She clearly knows what shes doing."