Men cheat for the same reason that dogs lick their balls... because they can.

I`m certainly not a prude.

That`s what life is - you follow where your heart leads you - at least I do.

I think the wonderful thing about doing theater is that it`s more of an actor`s medium. I think that film is more of a director`s medium. You can`t edit something out on stage. It`s there.

Practically all the relationships I know are based on a foundation of lies and mutually accepted delusion.

The first professional play I ever saw was The Importance Of Being Earnest, and I just fell in love.

Theatre can`t be done again and again and again and again - it`s organic.

The roles for women in theatre are much better than they are in film.

I`m a trisexual. I`ll try anything once.

Art is an expression of who you are. Parts that I play are my sculptures.

If you stick with a vision, it might not all work, but some of it will be absolute genius. To me, 15 minutes worth of absolute genius in a film is so much better than two hours of mediocrity. I would rather pay to see something different like that.

My experiences in film and theatre in the States have been much more rigorous-in England there`s an environment of, Let`s try this.

Since doing the show I`ve been so busy that I`ve not really had time to mope.

The scene where Samantha takes her wig off when she is suffering from breast cancer, and throws it across the room wasn`t in the script, it was something spontaneous I did [on "Sex and the City" (1998)]. Samantha`s wigs became just another accessory. We didn`t want the storyline to feel like "Oh my God, we`re going to get her head shaved". Despite what was happening to her, we felt that her character could withstand it and so you went through it with her. She carried off the afro wigs, the pink wigs, it was really fun. Obviously, there was a serious side to that storyline, as well, and I got some very intimate responses

I sort of have a love affair with my work. Many of us work far too hard and we don`t put enough value in the epicurean, sensual part of life.

Really rejoice in being yourself. Have your own drumbeat.

I first wanted to be an actress after seeing a play - not a movie.

I don`t read reviews because if they`re bad I`m devastated and if they`re good I get a big head.

I`ve always thought that less was a lot more.

I`ve been in love for most of my life, but that love has been for my work.

I am no size zero or super-thin Hollywood actress. I am built for men who like women to look like women.

On the end of "Sex and the City" (1998): My job came to an end, and it was awful to say goodbye to such a great character. As far as I was concerned, I was sacked. It was the end. I had dedicated myself to the show, doing countless 17-hour days, and I had detached myself from (then-husband) Mark Levinson.

On signing, at age 18, a long-term contract with Otto Preminger: It was an archaic system. You were, basically, under the control of one man and his whims. He wasn`t easy and it wasn`t an easy time. He wasn`t a nurturing director and I thought, `Maybe I don`t want to be a film actor, after all.`

When I finally expressed my sexual frustrations to girlfriends, to my amazement many of them were going through the same problems. You just can`t tell, because it`s not widely discussed. It takes a lot of courage to admit, even to yourself, that you`re not getting satisfaction from your husband or boyfriend.

It`s no use saying (the cast of "Sex and the City" (1998)) are best friends - because we`re not. And most of my work has been outside New York, so I haven`t been around. They`d have had to travel to see me and nobody did. But it felt like no time had passed when we met up again, even though everyone seemed nerve-racked.

There`s no better feeling than when you know that you`re going to be on stage each night, trying to make the part better and different for an audience. That`s just the way I am. I don`t think I`m going to change now.

I`m inspired by actresses like Lucille Ball and Marilyn Monroe. You can`t teach what they do.

I tend to look somewhere other than the media for my definition of what is beautiful. Is that a heavily retouched 18-year-old or a 40-year-old on that front cover? I don`t think so; nobody looks like that. I look at people such as Helen Mirren or Judi Dench, these amazing women who look great, but they look like their age, and I think why would anyone want to lower themselves to look like an alien? Sex appeal is all about confidence, and that comes from self-knowledge.

I`ve seen some women who are not particularly attractive but they have an assurance, and there`s something so attractive about someone who doesn`t have to work so hard. Still, I really like it when my boyfriend makes suggestions about what I wear. I like him going into the closet and taking out the cowboy boots, and finding the white jeans, and sometimes I`ll be wearing my hair up and he`ll say, "you know what, put the ponytail a little higher".

I`m 51 and I think I look my age, but I don`t want to be 20 any more or even 30 or 40. Besides, I`m too terrified to get any proper work so I`ve had just little things done. I have a big crease between my eyebrows and I use Botox to get rid of that, but that`s kind of it. I`m scared of surgery because I don`t want to look in the mirror and not recognise who`s looking back. I don`t want to be in a room, and to have people turn when I leave and say, "what happened?"

The clothes in "Sex and the City" (1998) were a blast! My favourite part was working with Patricia Field, the costume designer. It was just insane. My wardrobe was more outrageous than raunchy. Yes, the colours were bright and the necklines were super-low, but my behaviour was more daring than my wardrobe. I think some of the other characters` choices were more, "Soho trash queens", but Samantha was a professional woman who worked and lived uptown, so she was always well put together. For the first season, I had a connection at Yves Saint-Laurent, and I wore YSL suits with a brooch or a hat, or a bag that was kind of fun or zing, but never too raunchy.

The scene where Samantha takes her wig off when she is suffering from breast cancer, and throws it across the room wasn`t in the script, it was something spontaneous I did [on "Sex and the City" (1998)]. Samantha`s wigs became just another accessory. We didn`t want the storyline to feel like "Oh my God, we`re going to get her head shaved". Despite what was happening to her, we felt that her character could withstand it and so you went through it with her. She carried off the afro wigs, the pink wigs, it was really fun. Obviously, there was a serious side to that storyline, as well, and I got some very intimate responses.

People search me out, whether it`s on a beach in Australia or walking down the street in New York, running after me and crying, "I had cancer diagnosed when your character was going through it, and you saved my emotional state at the time because I felt frozen". It`s both amazing and devastating, because as an actress I imagined what it would be like - but these women`s hair actually did fall out, they didn`t have skullcaps and make-up.

To me, 15 minutes worth of absolute genius in a film is so much better than two hours of mediocrity. I would rather pay to see something different like that.

I prefer younger men. In some ways, they are much more open to a woman being stronger and independent then some of the men my age.

[on her role in Crossroads (2002/I), where she plays Britney Spears` mother, who abandons her daughter as a baby and later rejects her as a teen] It was one of the hardest jobs in my life. I had to be mean to Britney Spears. She is such a little Southern sweetie who is only 20. She was so nervous and so well-prepared, and I had to reject her on screen because I`m her horrible mother who has left her.

[on "Sex and the City" (1998)] The show is celebrating what it`s like to be a woman. We do things people think about but don`t vocalize. It gives men and women permission to talk in a way that is healthy.

I don`t know many women who can relate to Sharon Stone and the kind of movies she does. I don`t know a lot of guys who can relate to Tom Cruise`s movies because they`re on a kind of fantastic level. I like movies I can relate to.

There are so many avenues of performing. I`m not interested in the form of musical theater unless it`s something like The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), which is a blast.

"I`m finding now in my 40s that the less makeup I wear, the better. I think softer is better as you get older. With everything. Except men."

"I`ve been playing sexually aware women most of my life. At this point I expected to be playing moms and wives. It`s exciting to play a femme fatale."