That`s something I find is really missing in films that portray love between people in their 60s or 70s. It generally lacks chemistry, like somehow that`s all died away, and that`s just not my experience of people in their 60s and 70s, that that whole part of yourself disappears somehow. It`s a really pessimistic and inaccurate attitude that a lot of films have had, so it was really important for me to have that vibrancy between them, because I`ve seen it in relationships that have lasted that long. And I haven`t seen it very often in films." - 2007 AP interview on "Away From Her

[On filming The Sweet Hereafter (1997)] "I was so young then, 18. I`m really comfortable in sadness so I don`t get depressed doing stuff like that. I actually find it invigorating. It was an amazing experience. Atom Egoyan is a filmmaker who I really respect and I felt like I had his trust".

I was concerned about that, because I`ve always been so specific about doing independent films, but I`ve never done anything that`s so genuinely and ridiculously fun. And that`s a great thing, for me to discover that that`s possible.

I think that we need to get along together if we want to survive in the twenty-first century.

It is important to me to stay in Canada. I used to think it was because I thought it was important to build up an indigenous film industry - but now I realise I`m incapable of living anywhere else. I`m a real homebody.

Being a human being is all about experiencing all of the wonders of the world and therefore as an actress, I`m open to any opportunity that may enrich my horizon.

Lately I did a film called All I Want for Christmas and it was well received. This gave me a new point of view and a new respect for my work as an actress.

On her film Dawn of the Dead (2004) going up against Mel Gibson`s The Passion of the Christ (2004) head-to-head at the box office: "They`ve got only one guy who comes back from the dead. We`ve got millions".

I do tend to take time off. A year and a half ago I went to film school, and before that I had taken years off at a time to be involved politically or this or that.

[On movie critics] "There are a few who are not nice and they say things that are harsh...but they always help me to become a better actor."

I missed out on a traditional childhood but I had something else that got me to what I am doing today. I can`t say I regret it but I certainly wouldn`t let my child act at an early age.

There is no point trying to figure out who is guilty or not at un-balancing the planet. I think we need to figure out and solve the problems together and not isolate from each other.

It takes terrible things to live well.

Playing roles that are intense and damaged has always come more easily to me than doing comedies or lighter stuff - that would be taking a huge risk for me.

My mom died of cancer when I was really young. I`m not someone who tries to work out their own stuff with a role, but I think that happened despite my best efforts to keep myself separate from it.

[On being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for "Away From Her"] I`m in total disbelief. I`m thrilled but kind of in shock too. It`s been such a strange year and I`m bowled over by the life of the film. It`s more than I could have ever hoped. This now adds a very surreal element to it.

I was pretty uninterested in acting until I was about 17. I wanted to go to university and never think about acting again. I`d been very politically involved for a couple of years and I wanted a break, so I did The Sweet Hereafter (1997) in 1997. But I ended up completely falling in love with acting.

I always look for an intense experience, an intense ride. There is nothing better than a good zombie movie where you run crazy and blow at monsters! It was a physical shoot and I enjoyed it.

It`s not that I don`t want to become famous or that I`m obsessed by my work as an actress, but it`s all about not limiting myself, such as putting myself in a little jail that I can escape from.

So it`s conceivable I`ll do something insane, or more insane than Dawn of the Dead. If that`s possible.

I started acting when I was four. My first experience on a film set was in dead of winter. Now I realise that almost every film I`ve ever been in is like that. It was the beginning of a long career of incredibly cold, sparse, barren landscapes.

I still feel that a movie has to attempt to say something - even if it fails miserably. But I`ve sort of given up on believing that I`m going to change the world with every film I choose to act in.

I think you have to keep your distance from mainstream Hollywood in order to be a normal human being. I mean, I work there, and I like being there, but I love having an anonymous life. I think there`s definitely such a thing as being too famous. The reason why I stayed in Canada had everything to do with the kind of films we used to make before the commercial mandate came in effect at Telefilm. They were films that asserted an independent vision of the world. They weren`t just cheap versions of American genre films...but movies that spoke to the human condition. Now, I`m beginning to wonder why I stayed and if it was a huge mistake. [On herself and other Canadian actors & filmmakers, such as director-actor-writer Don McKellar, who stayed in Canada rather than go Hollywood and make movies in the U.S.] If Canadian films don`t have a purpose, then what are we still doing here? We`re beginning to freak out a little. Why make a commitment with so little reward? The Canadian films out there have been so weak, it`s been kind of depressing".

It was the opposite kind of love than we usually celebrate in films, which is new love without knowledge and without hardship. It`s the whole idea of love after life has had its way with you, and after you have kind of failed each other and things have gone off the rails. Yet love still somehow exists between them." - 2007 AP interview on "Away From Her

Plus, doing a zombie movie is quite liberating. It`s fun not to take myself seriously all the time.

I`m never sure what`s coming next, but I`m an open minded person and I welcome any challenge.

I always think it`s a bit of a joke when I get described as an activist. Really, for two or three months of my year I organise stuff, but I`m not as involved as I used to be.

I think that what a lot of first-time filmmakers don`t realize is that they are the least experienced person on that set. Everybody else has been doing their job for years, so the whole act of playing the filmmaker, playing the person in command, is a charade.

I enjoy doing my more intimate and less commercial pictures and also I enjoy directing.

Well, because Dawn of the Dead can take place anywhere and it shows that actually the entire planet is contaminated, I would say that it shows the new face of our world - one person, one race, united against the invisible destructive force.

The guy who taught me to use the shotgun was a complete gun nut. I asked, `Is the safety on when it`s to the right or off when it`s to the right?` And he said, `The way I like to remember it is right is safe, like the government, and left is unsafe, like the people we are shooting at.` And I`m thinking, `I`m in a room with my worst nightmare who`s teaching me how to shoot a shotgun. How did this happen to me?`

I want my world to get bigger and not end up in a small corner.

{On her marriage to David Wharnsby} "My relationship is the thing I`m proudest of in my life. I had a lot of opportunities to end up in some pretty bad situations and, despite all my faults, I had the sense to find someone like him and make the decision to be with him. You spend a lot of time wanting to be with the wrong person and I just feel incredibly lucky because I`ve succeeding at that one thing. I figured that out".

AIDS is a global problem and there should be a global solution found by the entire international community. It is really scary to see and imagine our world fall into pieces because we refuse to share and put in the common vestiges of our civilizations.

If you have the opportunity to do things which have some meaning I don`t know why you would choose to do other things. I understand that many people don`t have that opportunity but I do right now so I`m happy to hold out for the films which have something to contribute.

But I`ve realized that I`ve stuck to a very specific kind of film and a very specific style of acting, and I would like to shake things up for myself.