I can't do the same movies all my life. I'm conscious of that. But it's a trade-off. 'Dear John' allowed me to do movies I've wanted to do. You learn to balance it out. I'm still learning. Only now am I getting to do the kinds of movies that I have wanted to do. So it's a steady climb. You don't jump into a Soderbergh film.

It's mainly about working hard and proving to people you're serious about it and stretching yourself and learning. The mistake a lot of actors make particularly young ones is allowing themselves to feel that they're the finished articles the bee's knees and it's not true.

Libraries allow children to ask questions about the world and find the answers. And the wonderful thing is that once a child learns to use a library the doors to learning are always open.

House Republican leadership have refused to allow a clean minimum wage vote. Close to 15 million Americans will be affected if we did this. Do Republicans really expect a family to live on less than $11 000 a year?

The school made it very clear that women were entitled to positions of authority. That sense of entitlement allowed us to feel that we have a natural place in leadership in the world. That gave me a mental and emotional confidence.

We shouldn't be debating whether to deal with the current code by allowing it to be extended or not. We should have a president who shows leadership and comes to Congress and says: 'You know what? We need to reform this whole tax code.'

At that time the army leadership said the implementation of this agreement would allow everyone including the IRA to take its political objectives forward by peaceful and democratic means.

The most important thing I learned as a foreign correspondent in about 80 countries is that it takes a very shallow knowledge of history to think that there are solutions to most problems.

This required the development of a view which allowed one to integrate research with belief thing with person fact with aesthetics knowledge with application of knowledge.

It's much more interesting to watch someone who is ill-equipped to solve their problem fight to solve their problem than wallow in the knowledge that they're ill-equipped to solve their problems.