Crucially we haven't been figuring out how to live in oneness, with the Earth & every other living thing; we have just been insanely trying to figure out how to live with each other, billions of each other, only we're not living with each other our crazy selves are living with each other, and perpetuating an epidemic of disconnection.
The reality is that who you are is who you are right this second, not who you were at any moment in the past because it doesn't exist anymore. It's done. It's over.
If we're all living in ourselves and mistaking it for life, then we're devaluing and desensitizing life.
I don't put the pressure on myself to be a very successful movie star. I want to enjoy being an actor and I want to be challenged by the roles I take.
Humans are really interesting. We're so clever, what we do with our brain. How we manage to con ourselves into thinking all sorts of things is really fascinating. By the same token, if we could just convince ourselves of things that would gather us together and powerfully turn things around for the good, that would be awesome. It's doubtful because we're such a fear-based species.
From about the age of 5, I was aware that I didn't fit. I was the black, atheist kid in the all-white, Catholic school run by nuns. I was an anomaly.
When it comes to emotions, we all feel pain in the same way, everyone, whether you're from Istanbul or Beijing.
I use the film industry as a pleasure for work and that kind of thing and it's not a pursuit to make me feel happy in my life.
I see a wiser person than when I was younger: having babies, and passing 30, were the turning points. What women in their 40s - I am 39 - lack in gorgeousness, they make up for in wisdom. I love ageing, despite the drawbacks - thinner, drier skin.
[We assume] that the self is an actual living thing, but it's not. It's a projection which our clever brains create in order to cheat ourselves from the reality of death.
Very often, if you think about what's erotic and break it down, as we're feeling the excitement of eroticism, we're feeling fear. We want to try to dominate our fear and get rid of our fear, so we go towards it and have sex with it, basically. That's really sad.
I can hardly find the words to describe the peace I felt when I was acting. My dysfunctional self could actually plug in to another self, not my own, and it felt so good.
~I've learned the value of absorbing the moment. I remember the first time Ripley saw her shadow. My God, it was like shadows had just been invented. It was the most exquisite moment.~
Fear is just part of our DNA and our make-up. By definition, if we've had to be looked after for two years, it means we can't do it on our own and we need other people. That makes trust enormously important and it makes fear massive. Massive fear and trust issues really just defines us. The partner to belief is truth. If we're being fed lies, that's so powerful. And then, when we realize we're being lied to, it's going to make us really angry.
Having children is life-changing, to state the obvious. It's a gigantic shift in your life and I welcomed it.
When I am out and about I feel watched. It's become second nature. The only time I get to be private is in my work. That is when I liberate the ego. The blessed-out sensation of liberating the ego.
If I could change my appearance, I would have the gap between my front teeth put back in.
You're inviting hysteria with your boobs that are nearly showing nipple and your skirt that's nearly showing muff. You're exciting this hysteria that leads to a lack of control, which then leads to, "It wasn't my fault." But naked, I have all the power because I got there before you did, and what is actually there is vulnerable, life-giving and hasn't been tampered with.
I've been fortunate not to have been pigeonholed by virtue of being mixed-race, of being English and black, and by virtue of working all over the world. I've enjoyed a great degree of variety in the work that I've done. It's been quite unique.
I'd love to do yoga every day. I don't usually have time, but a few sun salutations go a long way.
Then I became a mother and it just fills every space, that isn't filled with something else important. It's just like this incredible balloon that blows up and fills life up.
I feel like the sexy clothes put a bar between you. It's like putting an alcohol drenched piece of wood between you and the person, and it's inviting them to be able to think and say the things that they hate about themselves.
I never understood the point of juicing - I always thought I could get enough nutrients from eating fruit and vegetables - but now I'm a convert.
