At the end of drama school I made a contract with myself: I'd try acting for five years. I was 26. I had already spent eight years working in restaurants and gas stations. So I had seen enough small businesses to understand that that's what acting is: a small business.

Behind every small business there's a story worth knowing. All the corner shops in our towns and cities the restaurants cleaners gyms hair salons hardware stores - these didn't come out of nowhere.

All I watch is the Food Network. I took a cheesemaking class a few weeks ago and I told my family and friends to only get me kitchen stuff on my birthday. I'm into every kind of cookbook and anything by Anthony Bourdain. I'd love to own a restaurant if I could find the right chef.

Memories are like mulligatawny soup in a cheap restaurant. It is best not to stir them.

Everyone goes to the same exhibitions and the same parties stays in the same handful of hotels eats at the same no-star restaurants and has almost the same opinions. I adore the art world but this is copycat behavior in a sphere that prides itself on independent thinking.

Murals in restaurants are on a par with the food in museums.

Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight dinner soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays I go Fridays.

The business that people do in LA on the social level is amazing. You go to a restaurant bump into this guy or that guy. The next day you get a call and they want you in their movie.

My father opened a restaurant. It's so amazing... it's so freaking delicious but I'm telling you I gain five pounds every time I go in there.

Weird people follow you in the streets you can't sit alone in a restaurant or a cafe and read a book in peace and I think everybody values those moments of being alone.