I feel like I`ve been marinated in Australian theatre.

You know, when you see yourself on a big screen, I tend to watch from behind my hands. There is absolutely the regret. You always get that at the end of every project. That`s what`s great about theater: at least every night you get the chance to go out and re-offend. I`m endlessly disappointed, which is what propels me into the next project, probably, not to repair the damage but to kind of hopefully keep developing. Otherwise there`s no reason to keep doing it, is there?

I don`t have a sense of entitlement or that I deserve this. You`d be surprised at the lack of competition between nominees - I think a lot of it`s imposed from the outside. Can I have my champagne now?

Look, it`s one of the great mysteries of the world, I cannot answer that question. I think I`m vaguely blonde. To be perfectly frank, I don`t know.

On the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy" "I had never done anything with blue screen before, or prosthetics, or anything like that. "Lord of the Rings" was like stepping into a videogame for me. It was another world completely. But, to be honest, I basically did it so that I could have the ears. I thought they would really work with my bare head."

You know you`ve made it when you`ve been moulded in miniature plastic. But you know what children do with Barbie dolls - it`s a bit scary, actually.

Violence and racism are bad. Whenever they occur they are to be condemned and we should not turn a blind eye to them.

Thank you. I so didn`t expected this. I wore a really tight dress that`s very ungracious walking up those stairs. Thank you very much, I sort of don`t know where to begin. Playing Katharine Hepburn, I absolutely did not expect to be standing here in front of you all. But Hepburn aside, I actually would like to say, as an actor coming from another country to this country, I am so astounded and amazed, and grateful, at the power of the SAG union and what it does for its members. And I hope that other countries, mine own included, you know, is inspired by that - I think it`s incredible. (SAG acceptance speech Feb. 5, 2005)

If you know you are going to fail, then fail gloriously.

I loved making it, I had a ball - cowboys and Indians. This is the thing, I love doing things which I`d never envisaged before. And so getting me on the back of a horse, with Tommy Lee Jones and shooting guns and chasing Indians, it`s just not something that I would have expected myself to be doing. [On working with Ron Howard in The Missing (2003/I).]

On her disgust of how so many of her Hollywood peers have succumbed to using face-paralyzing Botox: "It`s not just women on film, 18-year-old girls feel pressure to do preventative injecting. I see someone`s face, someone`s body who`d had children and I think they`re the song lines of your experience, and why would you want to eradicate that? I look at people sort of entombing themselves and all you see is their little pin holes of terror... and you think, just live your life, death is not going to be any easier just because your face can`t move."

There`s this sense that of course you want to be famous. When you`re a performer, of course you want an audience, but it`s very, very different from courting fame.

"I`m one of those strange beasts who really likes a corset."

The more you do it, the more you learn to concentrate, as a child does, incredibly intensively and then you sort of have to relax. I remember the first film I did, the lead actor would in between scenes be reading a newspaper or sleeping and I`d think, "How can you do that?"

It`s part of my job. You can`t play Veronica Guerin [puts on heavy Strine] sounding like this. It just wouldn`t wash. But what I find fascinating about doing an accent - unless it`s a farce - is that it`s not slapped on. [on doing many accents]

"If I had my way, if I was lucky enough, if I could be on the brink my entire life - that great sense of expectation and excitement without the disappointment - that would be the perfect state."

When asked if she has ever appeared in "Neighbours" (1985): "Absolutely not. I`m an actress."

When asked what colour her hair is: "Look, it`s one of the great mysteries of the world, I cannot answer that question. I think I`m vaguely blonde. To be perfectly frank, I don`t know."

"If you know you are going to fail, then fail gloriously!"