My mom wasn`t big on cooking, so we`d go to Vegas sometimes and go to buffets and just have a big adventure. We took it as a time to have an experience together more than things or food. That`s probably why I travel with my kids

On weekends we usually have family sleep. We always have one night a week where everybody stays up late, watches a movie, and stays in our bed. We have, like, a slumber party.

We both like to ride motorcycles, we both like to fly planes, that`s the spirited side of us. Then the other side of us is very focused on silly mommy-daddy things. So I guess that`s extremes, but I just think of that as balance.

So to admit that I`m extremely human and have done some dark things, I don`t think makes me unusual or unusually dark. I think it actually is the right thing to do and I`d like to think it`s the nice thing to do.

I take that as a very good sign. That some people support me and some people really don`t like me tells me that I`m making decisions and I`m standing strong for something I believe in. I`m making choices in life. And that`s the right thing to do

I`m terrible at reading scripts. I love to read and I hate reading scripts. Brad reads a lot because he`s also producing. We`re always joking about the fact that I just hate it. I have no patience. I can`t watch movies either.

I am a strong believer that without justice there is no peace. No lasting peace, anyway.

If being sane is thinking there`s something wrong with being different....I`d rather be completely fucking mental.

I am so in love with my brother right now!

Sometimes I think [my husband] is so amazing that I don`t know why he`s with me. I don`t know whether I`m good enough. But if I make him happy, then I`m everything I want to be.

If you don`t get out of the box you`ve been raised in, you won`t understand how much bigger the world is.

You might never find out that you are useful for all the right reasons - and not all those stupid things that people tell you you`re useful for.

Love one person, take care of them until you die. You know, raise kids. Have a good life. Be a good friend. And try to be completely who you are. And figure out what you personally love. And like go after it with everything you`ve got no matter how much it takes.

[on playing Olympias in Alexander (2004)] I felt that if I lived at that time, with the dangers she had and the threats she had and the lack of power she had as a woman, I would not have been that different from her. And I thought I also just saw her as a mother who really would push her son at a time that if he didn`t get the throne, he didn`t acquire a certain kind of strength and ability and greatness, he would probably just die or be killed or be exiled. So out of concern, out of love for your own, just to come from this place that seems very much like the horrible mafia father, but in fact it was for his own survival that she was focused on, which made it very easy for me to focus on thinking of my own son and what he had to do to protect himself from bad things that could hurt him.

[(CNN International Edition 29th January, 2005)] My role as goodwill ambassador has made my work as a film star relatively dull. I can`t find anything that interests me enough to go back to work. I`m simply not excited about anything. I`m not excited about going to a film set.

And my dad, you`re a great actor but you`re a better father.

[Regarding the possibility of marriage with her current beau and father of her child, Brad Pitt] We have both been married before so it`s not marriage that necessarily kept some people together.

[interview with Ann Curry] I`m in a strange, I suppose, place in my life. I think that happens when you lose a parent, where you drop into a different kind of serious. And yet, at the same time, you want to laugh and enjoy as much as possible every day. I`m hanging on to my family really tight at this moment, and, because of that, trying to be as good a woman as I can be in my life. Dammit, you got me crying.

Not many people know this about me but I`m a natural blonde. My hair went from light blonde naturally to a darker kind of blonde. My mother dyed my hair dark when I was a child as I loved the look then. So I`m basically a natural blonde.

[2002] I`m drawn to kids that are already born. I think some people are meant to do certain things, and I believe I`m meant to find my children in the world somewhere and not necessarily have them genetically.

I`d like to believe that the people that have supported me in my work or identified with me in films, the people that feel they know me, they do and they don`t have misconceptions - they understand. I believe that.

I don`t believe in guilt, I believe in living on impulse as long as you never intentionally hurt another person, and don`t judge people in your life. I think you should live completely free.

[on the superficiality of the industry] We are setting an example of what we think is beautiful and you really want to put that much make up on me?

If I didn`t have my films as an outlet for all the different sides of me, I would probably be locked up.

[On if she ever caught her husband Billy Bob Thornton cheating] I`ve told Billy if I ever caught him cheating, I wouldn`t kill him because I love his children and they need a dad. But I would beat him up. I know where all of his sports injuries are. And I`d beat her, too!

Because I am a bad girl, people always automatically think that I am a bad girl. Or that I carry a dark secret with me or that I`m obsessed with death. The truth is that I am probably the least morbid person one can meet. If I think more about death than some other people, it is probably because I love life more than they do.

If I think more about death than some other people, it is probably because I love life more than they do.

I`ll make it real simple, I`m a 36-C. In the game, she`s a double-D. In the movie [Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)] she`s a D. We split the difference . . . [Lara] is much more athletic, and she has smaller breasts, but she`s still Lara Croft, so there.

If I make a fool of myself, who cares? I`m not frightened by anyone`s perception of me.

I seem to be getting a lot of things pushed my way that are strong women. It`s like people see Hackers (1995) and they send me offers to play tough women with guns, the kind who wear no bra and a little tank top. I`d like to play strong women who are also very feminine.

[People Magazine 8 July 1996] There`s something about death that is comforting. The thought that you could die tomorrow frees you to appreciate life now.

[on what she does with the money she makes each year] Save one-third, live on one-third and give away one-third.

I don`t think the money people in Hollywood have ever thought I was normal, but I am dedicated to my work and that`s what counts.

[on her split from husband Billy Bob Thornton] I`m angry. I`m sad. It`s a very difficult and sad time. It was a real deep connection, a deep marriage, so it`s not that simple to say this or that one thing caused the problems. It`s clear to me that our priorities shifted overnight. He`s focused on his music and career. I`m focused on my baby. It comes down to what`s important to you.

You`re young, you`re drunk, you`re in bed, you have knives; shit happens.

It`s alright. It`s a part of life . . . I lost my mom. It`s a natural thing for a child to lose a parent. I lost my mom too young, but it happened. And I`m happy she`s out of pain, because I love her and she`s my friend.

Therapy? I don`t need that. The roles that I choose are my therapy.

"We come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly."

"If you have enough people sitting around telling you you`re wonderful, then you start believing you`re fabulous, then someone tells you you stink and you believe that too!"

"I didn`t really want to live, so anything that was an investment in time made me angry... but also I just felt sad. When the hopelessness is hurting you, it`s the fixtures and fittings that finish you off."

"I always play women I would date."

"All women do have a different sense of sexuality, or sense of fun, or sense of like what`s sexy or cool or tough."

Without pain, there would be no suffering, without suffering we would never learn from over mistakes. To make it right, pain and suffering is the key to all windows, without it, there is no way of life

When other little girls wanted to be ballet dancers I kind of wanted to be a vampire

We come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly

There`s something about death that is comforting. The thought that you could die tomorrow frees you to appreciate your life now

If I think more about death than some other people, it is probably because I love life more than they do

I`ve been reckless, but I`m not a rebel without a cause

I am odd-looking. I sometimes think I look like a funny Muppet

Nothing wins more hearts and minds and nothing gives more freedom than education and nothing is a better deterrent for conflict than an educated child