Bulking up for the Twilight films was one of the hardest things I've done... I had to give myself a lot of pep talks, as there was just so much gym time.
I made sure that instead of people making fun of me, like every comedian probably says, I made fun of myself first so they would get distracted and just laugh. I was pretty brutally picked on for a while growing up. It was always the really pretty girls, the hot girls and then there was me. So I had to do something to get any sort of attention.
I don't consider myself as a feminist but more a humanist.
I guess I know how to dress myself, and that's probably the only thing I can do, so it's nice that somebody notices.
I was taught to be demure, so it was harder for me to learn how to stand up for myself and go, 'What do I want? What are my desires?'
My agent in Sweden used to send off interview tapes but I decided to take it upon myself and come to London to visit casting directors which is when things first started taking off for me. I love Sweden but the industry out here is quite small so when I was given the chance to go internationally I took it.
Once I was able to take care of myself and my children, I then wanted to share.
If I go anywhere, and I don't have my coffee, I don't drink coffee. When I travel, I carry it with me - and I ask hotels to grind it and brew it for me if I can't have it in my room myself. I'm dedicated that way.
I don't really go down one path. I wouldn't call myself a Buddhist, or a Catholic or a Christian or a Muslim, or Jewish. I couldn't put myself into any organized faith.
I write because I'm in love with language; because I like working for myself, inside my head; and because it's the only way I know to make a stab at answering the never-ending questions of the heart that arise simply from the everyday living of our lives.
I hold myself to a high standard.
I worked at Barney's selling clothes to lonely, rich white women. Every time I would look down on myself - hating my job, hating my life - I would think, 'It's a character study. Study these people, and you'll have your SNL audition ready in, like, five minutes.'
I would type in things like, 'How to play beginner songs on guitar,' and one of the first I learnt was 'Hey, Soul Sister' by Train. I taught myself these chords I didn't know the name of and slowly started to get the hang. I was obsessed with it.
I like to think of myself as very loyal, and I love everyone I surround myself with, whether they're friends or girlfriends or whatever.
I wanted to make it in New York. I thought if I went out to the Midwest, I'd be burying myself. But I was wrong.
Something that has been important to me is never to repeat myself, never to go back.
The photo shoot I always feel a bit embarrassed about because I don't really know what to do with myself, but they usually don't use a bad photo, so you can't worry too much. So my main concern is that I just look a bit more like myself.
'Funny People' is my favorite performance of myself to date. Even though it's a comedy and there are serious moments, I really felt like Leo felt like a real person. It didn't feel like I was playing myself. Whether it's a comedy or drama, I just try to make it as realistic as possible.
This is my journey. If I fall, I have to pick myself up. If I'm not getting the playing time I want, it's up to me to figure out why.
My husband hailed from Dagenham; he's an Essex boy. Me myself, I come from Derry City in the northwest of Ireland, so we love to get back.
I wouldn't call myself successful, just obsessively exhausted. The music makes me smile, the movies make me feel humbled, and the comedy saves my life every day.
Why should I crowd the world with my opinions? Live and let live. That's it. Let people have their own opinions, and you just keep yours to yourself. There are too many opinions - some unnecessary, some great, some ridiculously stupid - so I think I rather not say anything and keep my opinions to myself.
Truth is, there's never really been anything so horrible said about me that I haven't either thought of or said to myself.
I think it's always a really stupid thing to base your achievement on someone else. I just want to base it on myself... do something that I can be proud of, and then I'll be happy.
When I think of myself, I think of Toronto. My music would never sound the way it does if it weren't for Toronto.
My mom always told me to follow my bliss. And I remember specifically with my father, when I was out of school and not knowing how I'd get a job or make money - should I take some classes? What do I do? He said as long as I was working - to enrich myself in some way - that I was on the right path.
I like to enjoy the game and to have fun and express myself as much as I can.
I am so enriched because so much has happened in my life. The way I can express myself is because of the life I have led. It's only when you experience life can you emote it.
The whole trick is to make it feel like you're spying on real people's lives as they get through the day. When I'm writing, I have to trick myself as a writer. If I consciously say, 'I'm writing,' I feel all this pressure and somehow it doesn't feel as real as when it doesn't seem to count as much.
Growing up, I would have to watch the other children and learn from my mistakes. I would have to push myself to overcome the things most people don't have to think about. Brushing my teeth was very difficult because of the noise of the brush.
I see myself starring in and producing major feature films.
When I'm in a place like Iceland, I allow myself to take a little more time to divert off onto other paths creatively for a while and see what comes to me.
I thought depression was the part of my character that made me worthwhile. I thought so little of myself, felt that I had such scant offerings to give to the world, that the one thing that justified my existence at all was my agony.
The more freedom I allow myself as a writer to wander, become lost and go into uncertain territory - and I am always trying to go to the more awkward place, the more difficult place - the more frightening it is, because I have no plan.
I hear the way people talk about the children of famous people. They're not treated very well. The presumptions are usually quite awful. So I tried to establish myself with a couple of movies. After 'Juno' I thought: 'I think I've defined myself enough as my own director that I'd love to work with my father.'
I had this idea that I could hire myself out as a person to go on archeological digs and dig, without any training! I actually wrote to a number of archeology departments and offered up my services.
