I think people like to think I'm in some way financially dependent on my family - on my dad - but the fact of the matter is I've been emancipated from my father since I was 14 years old. That's something people don't know or understand.

Before I guess mum and dad were everything but now in my case I had two new girls and all of a sudden they're completely dependent on you and there's a third generation. It's a funny shift all of a sudden. You have the babies you have yourself and then you have your parents.

The frustrating part of it is that you're generally known for what you did last. I've had the privilege of doing some very cool independent films that a lot of the time the general public doesn't see unless you're at a film festival or you're into that kind of movie.

I'm trying to mix the cool independent stuff with the big stuff but it's been difficult finding the right roles. It's been an interesting ride as far as my career pendulum is concerned.

There is a world of communication which is not dependent on words.

The thing I've come to learn is that what's great about small independent films is the intimacy and the communication that occurs when you're making them.

We have the character of an island nation: independent forthright passionate in defence of our sovereignty. We can no more change this British sensibility than we can drain the English Channel. And because of this sensibility we come to the European Union with a frame of mind that is more practical than emotional.

Every human has four endowments- self awareness conscience independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose to respond to change.

I think it's particularly a distinctively American concept that resonates with American culture through biker culture. A motorcycle is an independent thing. You're like 'I don't want to ride in a car with this person. I want to be independent and ride by myself. But let's ride in a group. Let's be independent together.'

My mother was determined to make us independent. When I was four years old she stopped the car a few miles from our house and made me find my own way home across the fields. I got hopelessly lost.