NAOMI SAID

On her films
"I had to therefore come up with my own decisions about what this meant and what this character was going through, what was dream and what was reality. My interpretation could end up being completely different, from both David and the audience." - on Mulholland Drive

"We're so afraid of death in our culture, but I think if we understand it better, then we'll appreciate the life we have more." - on 21 Grams.

"I've had people who've seen 21 Grams say, 'Wow, you're so brave to be looking like that'. This shocks me. I think that's what an actor's job is, to lose yourself in a role".

"It's always nerve-racking to take off your clothes on film. But doing it with a woman felt safer than with a man. You know you can say, 'Don't grab me there: That's where my cellulite is'!" - after being asked if it was hard to do a love scene with a woman in Mulholland Dr.

“If those two men (Kong and Driscoll) were welded into one, that would definitely make the perfect man. Adrien Brody plays the writer. He has all the words. Kong has all the soul, and all the power as well.”

“He is the ultimate man.” - on King Kong

“She looked up at me and went, 'You're not Ann Darrow. I am! ... At the end of the night ... she whispered in my ear 'Ann Darrow is in good hands.' Those were great parting words.” - on Faye Wray and re-making King Kong

“She had a great emotional journey in the first one and it was not just your classic genre picture with a damsel-in-distress kind of role. It was more than that and that's what drew me to the first. And I always knew when I did the first that there was going to be a number two.” - on Rachel Keller, The Ring

"The parallels are being drawn between me as a mother and Samara's mother and what I have done to my child and what was done to her by her mother, ... So there's things for the audience there to play with and look into, and that's clearly why Samara's drawn to me." [on The Ring series]

"It's a beautiful juxtaposition, working on probably the most expensive movie of the year as well as the cheapest movie of the year. It's fun to go from these totally polar, opposite worlds." [on Ellie Parker & King Kong in 2005]

"I always feel I'm boring audiences when I'm not doing anything, when I'm not emoting. Being still and passive is very scary to me. I always think it's not enough."

On her career
"All those disappointments were the perfect thing because if I'd gotten one of those parts I'd auditioned for, I would probably still be on some TV series today. I wouldn't have had the freedom to pursue the things I've been able to do over the past few years."

"It was total naivety that got me to Hollywood. I thought it was going to happen straight away. I told myself 'give it 5 years, there's no way I'll be here after that if it doesn't happen'. Cut to ten years later!"

"On set is where I feel comfortable. The red carpet stuff, talking about the film, explaining your own life, it doesn't come naturally. It's all necessary stuff I suppose but it's not my strength."

"I find myself gravitating towards drama. It interests me. In the books I read, the paintings I like, it's always the darker stuff."

"Whatever is said about roles drying up, I intend to keep working. Certainly now the roles couldn't be more interesting - playing mothers, divorcees. I think it's going to be exciting to play a mother of teenagers. The longer your life, the deeper it gets."

"If I have to produce movies, direct movies, whatever to change the way Hollywood treats older women, I'll do it. If I have to bend the rules, I will. If I have to break them, I will."

"There's a lot of skeletons in my closet, but I know what they're wearing. I'm not gonna act all ashamed of it" - on her early career

"That ad recently turned up in a magazine in Australia. My head is in my hands as I'm sitting at as desk, thinking, 'When can I start using tampons?' I was quite old, but I was supposed to look 12" - on one of her first jobs

“That's one of the lucky things about getting the success later on. I know how I want to dress, I know what kind of house I want to live in, I just know more about myself, and that's true about the roles I want to play and what parts of myself I want to express. You're just more in touch with yourself.”

"Instead of thinking 'how can I slow the ageing process?' I think 'how can I bend the rules?' Every year you add to your life, you're going to add a different experience to your face."

“I mean it's weird because the thing that I love about acting is the fact that I can help people feel things, know themselves or feel less alone. It's my form of expression, in the same way that someone might paint a picture or sing a song in that you're hoping that it moves somebody outside of their own way of thinking.”

“I've slept with a few directors but still didn't get the part. Isn't that strange?“

“I’m a hard worker. Because opportunities came to me much later, there’s an underlying fear that it’s going to go away.”

"That's one of the lucky things about getting the success later on. I know how I want to dress, I know what kind of house I want to live in, I just know more about myself, and that's true about the roles I want to play and what parts of myself I want to express. You're just more in touch with yourself."

"Sometimes I would think wow, Nicole's gotten all these great things. But instead of abusing myself and self-destructing I was inspired by her. The fact we've come from the same place gave me hope for myself." - on her friend Nicole Kidman's rise to fame

"It is very flattering to even be considered or talked about in that company but it just kind of makes me a little nervous and tense to even think about it. She has said `oh you are going to get it' and I have said `you are going to get it' to her but beyond that it is not a conversation because we both know it would just make us too nervous." - on the Oscar buzz surrounding her and Nicole Kidman in 2003/2004.

"I'm at the point where unless I'm out of my comfort zone, it's not worth leaving home for. I've got two gorgeous kids in my home and my life, and I'm not going to spend a minute away from them, unless it's something I really want to play." - in 2010

On life
"Pain is such an important thing in life. I think that as an artist you have to experience suffering. It's not enough to have lived it once; you have to relive it. Darkness is not a pejorative thing."

"You have to make peace with yourself. The key is to find the harmony in what you have."

On herself
"For the record, I am actually British as well as Australian. People always think I'm Australian but I'm happy for the Brits to claim me back. I'm offering myself up."

"I always love being in the company of women. It's all about good conversation and great wine."

"The biggest place I look for validation is from my mother. That's the little girl in me that will never grow up." - on why not having an Oscar yet doesn't faze her.

"I'm a tomboy now. I always wanted to fit in with my brother's group, so I climbed trees and played with lead soldiers. But I'm a woman's woman. I never understood women who don't have woman friends."

“Oh, I'm definitely a wild child.”

“I think I have better taste now than I did then.”

"I’m very claustrophobic, especially when you feel like you’re gonna be stuck in there for a long time. Like, what if you need to go to the toilet or something? You don’t really go with preparations. When you’re on a plane you take preparations, just in case. But when you’re in an elevator you don’t, because you think you’re gonna be on for (a few) seconds, or something."

Nevertheless you are regarded as embodiment of the feminine. Nicole Kidman once said, before you two were friends, that she had always noticed you as "the pretty one" at the castings. "Aww, how sweet of her! But I never was a model - beauty. You just can illuminate my face very good." [translated from a German interview by Lea]

"I consider myself British and have very happy memories of the UK. I spent the first 14 years of my life in England and never wanted to leave. When I was in Australia I went back to England a lot."

"I have the reserve of the English, but I love the outgoing way of the Aussies."

"I know what it's like to bottle emotions; I've definitely been guilty of that at times. But I know if I keep my emotions in, I'll explode over the most ridiculous thing. Suddenly, it all comes bubbling out and I'll be completely irrational."

On love
“We are perfect for each other. I like someone thoughtful, serious and intelligent, but I also want him to be fun and silly. He has to be able to make me laugh ? if a man can do that, he's pretty well got me.” [on Liev Schreiber]

“I never say never, but I’m not desperate to get married. I’m not someone who has always dreamt of a wedding day. I’m more disbelieving. Or have been. Well, that was my original stance. You loosen up about things as you get older.”

“It was a scene when he jumped on his horse and said goodbye to me. I suddenly felt like I was in Wuthering Heights. It was a beautiful, old-fashioned moment.” - on when she fell in love with Heath Ledger

"I have been cheated on. You always fear it. It's horrible."

"I've never been married, but I've been forced to face infidelity and been hurt by it."

"I have married friends who have been through infidelity and gotten through it. I've had friends who've had the desire to be with someone else in an animal way, and I think that's completely human. I love it when I hear someone say that they had that desire, and got honest with their partner and talked about it -- rather than the partner going, 'Damn you' and getting all jealous and reactive. In some cases, the partner has gone, 'OK, that hurts, but I do understand it.' The person becomes so much greater and so much sexier [when being honest]."

On motherhood and her sons
Motherhood “is everything everyone says it is and more,” the actress told Australia’s Herald Sun, in April. ‘‘There’s still so much to learn, I’m still figuring it out. It’s amazing how you can lose yourself in hours of doing absolutely nothing but staring, making funny faces and noises. I’m having a great time.’’

On her childhood and parents
"My mum put me in drama classes when I was about 14. I'd been going on about it for some time, so maybe it was a way to shut me up."

"The consequences are that you fear and dread being abandoned. You get a little tougher, and it's more difficult for you to become intimate. The pros are that you can adapt to any situation and that you're open to new surroundings. A lot of people get stuck in their ways, but I embrace change." - on moving frequently when she was younger

On everything else
"Baked beans is my thing. I grew up on them. There were times when it was all I could afford. Now I can afford caviar, but you won't see me chowing down on it. Baked beans turn me on a lot more." "Even during my most intense scenes with Sean Penn, we found ways to have fun. Sure, I have my dark moments, but I'm the girl you'll see driving down the highway singing to Blondie."

“There was a time I was very much blaming the way I felt on L.A, that it was a vacuum of creativity, of humor or anything organic, and I was really angry at the place. But then today I feel completely different - I love L.A.!”

"I want to start a family. I want to make room in my life for other things."

"It's weird that there are so many remakes out at the moment. We're run out of new ideas, which is sinful, and we're going to burn out."

"There's nothing natural about a red-carpet experience. People scream your name at the top of their voices, 100 of them at a time, and it just makes your heart leap out of your chest. I don't like being in loud places any more - all my friends call me Granny! My favourite thing is welcoming people in to my home."

"At first, people were trying to shape him as this kind of teenage hunk. And that’s so not he wanted. It was something that he was trying to escape into the world of real artistry. When I met him, he was just turning that corner in his work." - on Heath Ledger

"He was a huge, obsessive, chess freak—and very, very good at it." - on Heath Ledger

"I think he wanted to be someone who was doing the observing—not the one being observed. He hated not being able to go about his life in an ordinary way. But I think that, deep down, he enjoyed that he was recognized for his talent. I think he was starting to own that and that’s the deepest tragedy, in terms of his work. He was just beginning to own it and embrace it." - on Heath Ledger

"He had so many great friendships. He had all his Australian friends who he took everywhere with him. He had a real community." - on Heath Ledger

"I’d never known someone so connected to their family. I became good friends with his parents and stayed in touch with them after we split. They did such an excellent job of raising this wonderful person. His parents divorced a long time ago, but each of them had new partners, and every premiere, every award ceremony, they would all come over. His sister, too. There was a real sense of wanting to share it." - on Heath Ledger

"His acting was so touching, so connected in truth. I think he was just getting started." - on Heath Ledger

"Australians don't take themselves too seriously. There's a really good sense of humour about them."

"In Australia, they're definitely more brutal. I think they're up there with the worst of them and the British ones are pretty bad too." - on the tabloids

"I keep telling my Australian friends to come to Hollywood. When I arrived, you had to hide the fact that you were from Australia. I would go to auditions and speak with an American accent. That doesn't happen anymore. Suddenly, I can be fiercely Australian."

"It's such a beautiful city that it does bring up amorous. You've got all these images in your head of people kissing on bridges and you do yearn for that experience." - on Paris

"I've got a network of really strong relationships with women; incredible sister-type girlfriends."

OTHERS SAID

"Whenever we get together for any length of time, we always end up having a big fight, but it's always Nicole and me. Naomi's not a fighter. She's a pacifist. It was always up to Naomi to bring us back together. She's such a peacemaker at any cost. Nicole nailed it when we had yet another big argument and she said 'We are like the three sisters in Chekov.' It's always going to be difficult and fraught with tension and, you know, by turns absolutely rewarding and hilarious." - Rebecca Rigg

"I heard she is just magnificent in King Kong, and I think it is going to be a whole different life for her in terms of everything she has ever wanted. And I think she is more than ready for it." - Nicole Kidman

"We always say to Rebecca that she is the successful one because she has the successful marriage with three kids. Becca's the backbone, Naomi's the extrovert, and I'm the screwup. I'm the quieter one, the one that's sort of straighter, but I can be led astray. Naomi is the most gregarious She's the one that will dance on tables. I always say that all of this comes and goes and in the end you want to be old women and you want to look each other in the eyes and say 'I know you. We've stayed friends. I've seen so many things happen and I love you.' That's what I search for in friendships and that's the common thread through all of us. There's an honesty. We age together, we watch each other become wiser and stronger, and we see each other's frailities, prop each other up and support each other." - Nicole Kidman

"Naomi actually dated ny sister's first major boyfriend prior to my sister. Then we met at some casting call, but I knew of Naomi because she was always the pretty one. I would see her at the Oaks, a pub in Sydney, and look across and she was just gorgeous." - Nicole Kidman

"I'd always be delighted to have Naomi Watts at a party. She's chic, simple, stylish and has a lovely disposition. She does her thing and does it well; she's stuck at her craft and reaped the rewards of hard work, and yet she's still modest and approachable." - Nikki Andrews, head of Nikki Andrews Consulting (PR)

"It was also my girlfriend (Naomi). She said to me, when I was expressing my fear, she said how important it is to face fears and to be brave. She is. She taught me that and she said that you'll be rewarded in many ways spiritually and as a person if you face your fears and if you're brave. And I was like 'Oh my God' you're right." - Heath Ledger

"Naomi read it and told me I should do it. She encouraged me to face my fears. She said it's really exhilarating when you commit to a script that frightens you. "She told me by doing a film like Brokeback Mountain, I'd be rewarded in many ways, including spiritually."

"We were two girls who really liked each other from the start. We formed an immediate trust and bond." - Kate Hudson

"And I want to thank David Lynch for waking us up to one of the greatest gifts an actor can have: Naomi Watts." - Sean Penn, during his speech for winning Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival in 2003