"i think of myself as a highly sexual creature.. i have to use that, i like it.. i didn't grow up with a mother telling me what i had under my clothes was bad or evil.."

"i feel really lucky to have the body i have, i love it.."

"if they ever do my life story, whoever plays me needs lots of hair colour and high heels.."

"i suppose there is this little bit of a wild child in me just from growing up on a farm and having parents who were mechanics.. i do like to think i've evolved since then.."

"at first i found it really hard using three different english accents: south african, faking the american, faking the accent required by the job. i decided to make it easier for myself and just do one.. i haven't lost my culture, just my accent.."

"you need to surround yourself with people you really do trust and people who really love you who are willing to show you your flaws.."

"i've always been very proud to be a south african and i've always been very honest to people about that. and whatever i can do in my power i promise you i will do.."

"south africa is my home and will always be in my roots.."

"nelson (mandela) said to me that he thinks he's not getting into heaven, i said, if you don't get in, i am screwed.."

"there are so many unwanted children on this earth and its our job to take care of them. and if we don't, we're doing the world a disservice.."

"it is in a box. i am redoing my floors at the moment, so I had to put it somewhere safe. that is what an oscar brings. i am able to re-do my floors.."

"i love cutting flowers and working in the garden.. i like doing dishes.. i can become obsessive about mundane things like cleaning out my closet, which is so lame.."

"i can't see myself with anybody who takes things too seriously or can't have a decent laugh about himself.."

"i really don't understand why anyone would think that you have to be physically perfect to be in movies, because it's so not true.. when you look at the amount of MTAs [model-turned-actresses] that are successful, it's a minute proportion.. you might get in the door for a couple of years playing the beautiful girl, but then Hollywood is going to be done with you.."

"i don't feel its my job anymore to be nice.. in the beginning, if a stranger said, 'your movie was great', i thought we had to be friends.."

"we are not planning a wedding.. still, everytime we get the irish papers theres something in them about the wedding stuart and i are supposedly having.. its like the perfect wedding with the flowers and music and keanu reeves walking me down the aisle.. i read about it and think 'wow, these irish sure know how to do it - even when they're making it up.."

"i had a sex scene with keanu reeves in devil's advocate, but i turned into a different girl in the middle of it.. the other [actress] had better breasts that i did.. i was very upset about that.."

"everyone says, 'oh, she has such perfect skin and her hands are so beautiful", as if i'm this kind of untouchable creature.. but i have never thought of myself as this exquisite thing.. i think of myself as a very approachable woman.. but people used to think that when i said that i grew up on a farm it was this schtick, just me trying to say, 'look, i'm really a normal girl.."

"you can never get to a place of comfort in this business.. as soon as you hit that little cushy spot, somebody's gonna kick you out.."

"i just love anthony hopkins.. but to be honest, i've never placed that much importance on age and its never been an issue for me in a relationship, although i do draw the line at 17-year-old boys..!"

"the video store called my mom and said, 'your daughter has had dirty dancing for 9 months.. please return the tape."

"i do want a family.. and when i do, i want it to be with stuart.."

"women have conquered the world.. its time we had a female president.."

"anything naked with keanu reeves is a good thing.."

"i haven't been with any peter sellers types or trashed any hotel rooms.. it would be a mixture of martha stewart gardening and making jam, then every once in a while going to a film festival.."

"i've always been extremely honest about the fact that i was born and raised in south africa.. i sound like an american and i can surely act like an american, but i'm a south african.."

"some days i look in the mirror and feel hot.. others, i say, 'i've got back fat and need bigger jeans.."

"i had no hair until i was four - i was this big, bald baby with a giant head.. i was not an adorable little girl.."

"i don't think i could be friends, or even acquaintances, with somebody who admitted, 'i hate animals'.. i can't relate to that feeling at all.."

"i'm not a crazy dog lady.. i don't dress up my dogs.. a scarf is as far as i'll go.."

"i’m a bit of a cow.. keep milking me and i’ll eventually go dry.."

"i don't think my mom ever said, 'isn't she a pretty girl..?' she'd say, 'you should hear her sing'.. praise was about what i'd done, not how i'd looked.."

"i don't really like wearing bras.. there's not alot to put in them.."

"i don't like celebrity.. i don't like this whole culture that we're living in now, and i don't like this casual attitude that if you decide to be an actor then your life is up for grabs.. its just not nice to go and get your groceries and have seven cars following you.. i think i am becoming a little bit more closed off because of it.."

"as long as my dogs are there, i'm happy.."
- on her movie set trailers

"i didn't want to keep on doing the same blonde bitch roles.."
- on her first manager john crosby's termination

"it was like i had some guardian angel.."
- on missing the lead role in showgirls

"if he thinks i'm worth hiring, then maybe i'm going to be ok.."
- on tom hanks hiring her for the part of tina powers in that thing you do..! early in her career

"when I met him [keanu reeves] he’d had a really bad motorcycle accident, and his leg was still in a cast.. i loved how even after the accident, he wasn’t fazed by it.. he was waiting for the cast to come off so he could get back on his bike.. i said, jokingly, "God, i’ve always wanted to learn how to ride a motorcycle.." and he said, "well, i’ll teach you.." a year passed, the filming was finished, but he never forgot that.. he taught me how to ride a harley.."
- on co-star of devil's advocate, keanu reeves

"i had heard about the script and i backed away from it.. i didn't want to go back and do 2 days in the valley again.."
- on a young director being attached to reindeer games when she first heard of the script

"it looked like real sex.. it wasn't pretty.. we're falling all over the place.. a lot of times we had no idea if the cameras were even rolling because the [crew] was laughing so hard.."
- on filming the sex scene for reindeer games with co-star ben affleck

"i didn't exactly make a decision that i wasn't going to work for a year - i didn't feel like going to work; i felt like sleeping in and being in love.."
- on the small break after filming trapped

"in simple terms, i could rip his heart out pretty easily, which is what the movie asked for.."
- on doing the movie head in the clouds with boyfriend stuart townsend

"i guess that means i can really play myself..! i'm really excited.. in the comic book, she wears a tiny piece of fabric covering her crotch but i'm not sure i will go that far.."
- on aeon flux

"the first time i talked to him about doing the part, he said, 'if i were making this film in the 40's, i'd cast lauren bacall.. would you be interested..?' ok, so woody allen and lauren bacall - how difficult a decision is that..? who wouldn't jump at the chance to be lauren bacall..?"
- on being cast in the curse of the jade scorpion

"there was crap on one bedspread.. and a bright light coming through the windows and no curtains.. we were so freaked out.. i took an ambien and we all slept in one room because we were too scared..!"
- on the set of monster

"practically our only form of entertainment was winning teddy bears at lee and rick's oyster bar in orlando.. we robbed them clean of bears.. we spent half the budget of the film, but we did it.."
- on the set of monster

"i just went through that, so for me to be thinking about it again would just seem very selfish.."
- on the possibility of being nominated for another oscar for north country

"clean underwear.."
- on what she packed for the toronto film festival

"i don't know what you are talking about.. no, it was some cute german boy that i got to make out with.."
- on stuart townsend's cameo in aeon flux

"..we're never, ever getting married.. not ever.. just to annoy them..!"
- on the paparrazzi

"i played a joke on an ex.. i called him up and told him i thought i was pregnant.. he was freaking out.. so now i don't do anything on april fools.."
- on why she doesn't celebrate april fools

"delilah sits as if she were elizabeth taylor in cleopatra mode.. and denver suggles better than any man i've ever been with.."
- on her dogs

"even the morning after the oscars, i was like, 'breakfast..!' and he's like, 'get up..! i'm not making you breakfast now because you've won an oscar..!' i'm so blessed to be around somebody like that.."
- on stuart townsend

"they try to beat you down so you give in but i'll never do that.. if i have to call as many restraining orders or dump as many water bottles on cameras, that's what i'll do.."
- on the paparazzi

 "i've been freezing, and all these other girls are so graceful.. no goosebumps.. and i'm like shivering.."
- on the screen actor's guild awards red carpet in 2006

"i don't need to wear a white dress and throw a big party.. to me that is like a premiere.."
- on marriage

"obviously i'm not that good a producer.. he doesn't know the name of the movie.."
- on dennis hopper introducing ferris wheel by a different name

"i kept on running into writer and director paul haggis when we were at an awards event.. he was there for his film crash and i was there for north country.. we were the only two losers in an alley, smoking.. he said, 'i'm going to write a film for you..' and he did.."
- on getting a role in in the vally of elah