Cate Blanchett quotes:

I love 'Annie Hall,' but then I adore 'Hannah and Her Sisters.' Dianne Wiest is amazing in 'Bullets Over Broadway,' but her in 'Hannah and Her Sisters,' I absolutely loved it.

If you age with somebody, you go through so many roles - you're lovers, friends, enemies, colleagues, strangers; you're brother and sister. That's what intimacy is, if you're with your soulmate.

We've enshrined the purity, sanctity, value, and importance of bringing children into the world, yet we don't discuss death. There used to be an enshrined period where mourning was a necessary part of going through the process of grieving; death wasn't considered morbid or antisocial. But that's totally gone.

I think we should stop drinking bottled water. There's no need to be drinking it if you're living in western communities.

All cities do face similar, significant trends in the future... most importantly global warming and climate change.

Suddenly, my friend's daughters are becoming my best friends. I have so many 12-year-old girlfriends.

I think our Western society is very much about, 'Tuck your head in; make sure you're safe. Don't rock the boat.'

I don't think it's more difficult for actors to have a good marriage than anyone. I think, in the end, a really important component of any relationship is honesty, and it also comes down to luck.

I'm a much healthier person through my relationship with my husband. I've become a more fulfilled person - it's a great partnership.

You're always more critical of your own country. People will talk about stuff in Britain, and I'll go: 'Aw, it's not that bad,' but at home, it's different. It's inside you.

People who say, 'There's nothing to fear from spiders' have clearly never been to Australia.

If I had my way, if I was lucky enough, if I could be on the brink my entire life - that great sense of expectation and excitement without the disappointment - that would be the perfect state.

You do not want to be in a creative organisation with everybody being like-minded and stroking each other's creative egos. You want differences of opinion... constructively.

Marriage is a risk; I think it's a great and glorious risk, as long as you embark on the adventure in the same spirit.

I don't have a sense of entitlement or that I deserve this. You'd be surprised at the lack of competition between nominees - I think a lot of it's imposed from the outside. Can I have my champagne now?

I'm incredibly lucky that my profession allows me to be where I choose, really.

When you go to a concert, part of being there is that you're all hearing the same thing. It's about being in a crowd. If you go to a gig and there are two people there, then it's not the same thing.

I always dressed as a man when I was at school. I loved wearing a tie and a shirt, and I was always wearing suits. Annie Lennox was my hero. I was always playing men in high school.

People assume actors are born liars, but I'd argue the actor's job is to tell the truth. And I've realised I'm not a good liar.

I applaud Women in Film - not only for celebrating the successes of women, but for providing a safety network to mentor women and to discuss the particular issues that arise in a very male-dominated industry.

I don't like a heavy mask of make-up day or night - mascara and a bit of bronzer.

I cook a mean Sunday lunch. My idea of Heaven is a lunch outside on a beautifully sunny Sunday afternoon. It's the time to gather everyone together.

There's many things that you can do with your life. It doesn't necessarily - I think if you're in a creative sphere, or if you're hungry for experience, then those experiences don't necessarily happen like rungs of a ladder or in a linear way.

We keep making the same mistakes as a species, and you can usually draw it back to the fact that we are all terrified of dying. We also all think that we are going to escape it until we get to 65!

Those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films with women at the center are niche experiences - they are not. Audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people.

I think that the benefit of playing someone like Queen Elizabeth is that so much has been written about her, and there's so much speculation about her - was she a hermaphrodite? She's so mythologised, and there are a lot of images of her.

I'm not particularly needy, and I'm not particularly anxious. I don't look for a director to tell me I'm doing a good job or that I'm great. I don't need to be stroked. It's more my own yardstick.

When anyone plays a mother on film, there is a whole raft of judgment in that a mother is a particular archetype or that every mother is the same. That's complete rubbish.

It's not the normal way to look at things but I experienced death at a really young age and because of that it's been part of my mental landscape that death is really very possible.

The more you can remove the obstacles between you and the world as a woman, the easier and simpler life becomes.

I've an enormous respect for my mother who at the age of 39 raised three children, and I grew up with my grandmother in the household. And so it was a really strong household of women - my poor brother! It was great growing up with so many generations of women.

I'm incredibly fortunate to have met the intelligent, generous, risk-taking, stimulating man to whom I am married. He's really amazing.

Planning cities is a necessary but risky business.

Being in Australia, I was really sun conscious. For a couple of summers there, I did the baby oil thing, and my my mom said, 'Just don't. You'll regret it.'

Actresses can get outrageously precious about the way they look. That's not what life's about. If you starve yourself to the point where your brain cells shrivel, you will never do good work. And if you're overly conscious of your arms flapping in the wind, how can you look the other actor in the eye to respond to them?

Don't you find that work, if you love it, is actually really invigorating?

I think my understanding of different types of love has certainly deepened.

We need to keep switching up the language around climate change.

I care about climate change because of our children. I want to safeguard their future.

I discovered early on that some performers live their life in order to act, so all their relationships are simply an experience that they can feed back into their work. Which I find vampiric.

The one thing that all great cities have in common is that they are all different.

People love events - they love performances, they love music - and I think Australians are great entertainers.

I use the Philip Kingsley range of shampoos, and they've got a great elasticiser, which is fantastic. I wrap my hair in cling film and put that on.

People tend to look great if they feel great.

I've known the panic of financial struggle. I didn't grow up with money at all, and my family has certainly known the panic of, 'Oh, gosh, where's the next bit of money coming from?'

I want to see a connected and progressive future for Australia, where we harness our greatest natural resources: sun, wind, and brain power.

When I emerged from drama school, I had no expectation that I would ever work in film.

I don't understand a way to work other than bold-facedly running towards failure.

Violence and racism are bad. Whenever they occur they are to be condemned and we should not turn a blind eye to them.

I think Pilates is great, especially when you can do it with a trainer who keeps you on track.

You can't really achieve anything in three years.

I think marriage is all about timing.

When a gift is difficult to give away, it becomes even more rare and precious, somehow gathering a part of the giver to the gift itself.

I think it's so easy to be judgmental of other people's decisions.

You know, you do have a self-awareness as an actor.

I look forward to the holiday season every year.

There is not a lot of separation between work and home life.

I tend to use really basic creams, and I like to put an oil on, like an emu oil from Australia. It's from the emu, and it's really nourishing. I prefer an oil to a cream.

Things present themselves to you, and it's how you choose to deal with them that reveals who you are. We all say a lot of things, don't we, about who we are and how we think. But in the end it's your actions, how you respond to circumstance that reveals your character.

I think about my father and how sad it was that he never had grandchildren.

It was only when I realized how actors have the power to move people that I decided to pursue acting as a career.

I'm either sitting very still or running very fast.

Men are boys for such a long time and really don't start getting the great roles until they're in their mid-thirties. But then they've got a long time to do them, whereas for women, it's all about playing younger and younger and younger.

I want to be able to follow the example of those extraordinary British actresses who move effortlessly from film to TV to theatre roles.

Ageing is something that both men and women are utterly terrified about.

Theater is a space where you cross over from everyday life, because there are real people in that moment moving in front of you - you're being invited to believe in a story and cross that bridge.

Louise Frogley is a brilliant designer. I always find her wardrobe fittings really informative and creative. Together, you kick images and ideas around.

When I came out of drama school, I was in a shared house in Sydney.

My kids don't watch any TV, but they watch videos and films. I'm sure they watch it at friends' houses.

Because the picture is called 'Veronica Guerin,' you expect a biopic. But it's really about the last two years of her life.

I think I just want to garden - or kill some plants, in my case.

I don't mind not looking conventionally - you know, attractive if that's what the part requires.

I'm very old fashioned.

I think there is a long exploration in American drama of women in particular who, by force of circumstances or because they are predisposed to, choose fantasy over reality.

The power of the story sheds a light and great perspective on well known facts. The power of cinema draws on that collective history.

Playing the lead in a film where you shoot for three months away from home is not an easy thing for me when my children are in school and my husband is running a theatre company.

My everyday beauty routine is always rushed and pretty simple.

I'm not focused on what other people think of me.

I am happiest when I don't know what's coming next.

The word 'circumnavigate' is quite a beautiful word.

I saw the first 'How to Train Your Dragon' film with my children, and I found it utterly exhilarating.

We're constantly morphing into different outward manifestations of ourselves. That's what I find curious about people.

I love dressing up, although that doesn't mean necessarily on the school run.

In my career, I thought I've never wanted to get anywhere in particular. I just wanted to work with interesting people on interesting projects.

Women have been doing very, very strange things for centuries. I mean ancient Egyptians were already doing that, but I don't necessarily judge people who do. I don't really think it makes people look better; they just look different.

I think when something is apolitical and it gets politicised, then it's incredibly disappointing.

You know you've made it when you've been moulded in miniature plastic. But you know what children do with Barbie dolls - it's a bit scary, actually.

Look, it's one of the great mysteries of the world, I cannot answer that question. I think I'm vaguely blonde. To be perfectly frank, I don't know.

Perhaps being a parent has changed career more in that you ask yourself how long you'll be away from home. My eldest child is approaching school age so that becomes more important. They're less portable.

Theater is all about foyers and conversation and digesting what you've seen.

To become a painter or a sculptor or a graphic designer is quite an isolated way to spend your life.

I certainly think that when I flick through all the magazines at the hairdresser's I like to see and am drawn to images that have an intelligence and mind at work behind them.

I just don't see myself as the heroine in my own narrative.

I finally had a honeymoon with my husband in Italy.

I went through a mod and goth-phase when I decided that I wouldn't ever be the bronzed beach-bunny. I started going as pale as I possibly could.

And perhaps, those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films, with women at the center are niche experience, they are not. Audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people.

I think referendums are fantastic as long as the question is phrased in a way which is not meant to deliberately confuse or confound people.

When something is a vocation, you don't really make a decision about it.

As an actor, I endeavor to find the reason in the unreasonable. Because no one thinks they are being unreasonable or unrealistic or demanding or behaving madly. We all see ourselves as being justified.

I would really have liked to have gone to Broadway with 'A Streetcar Named Desire.' I was proud of that.

I never feel particularly comfortable holding a gun, but when you're playing somebody who lived in the frontier southwest, guns are a part of their life. Anyone who lives on land has a gun.

The great thing about not being American is that you don't assume you know what a Southern accent sounds like, so you have to be specific.

Once you get an offer from Steven Soderbergh, you just do anything you can to make it fit.

I'm scared of actors with a scheme.

Germany is a country that has absolutely had to since the Second World War ask itself massive moral questions. And it's reforged its identity based on culture. I mean, the amount of artists living and working in Berlin is unparalleled. It's one of the strongest economies, not only in Europe, but globally, and it's because of its understanding of the importance of culture.

Fashion is one thing, you kind of can change your silhouette and try this and try that. But I think that with skin care, you know anything that you put into your skin goes into your body, so you want to know it's actually good for you. So I think I don't believe in fashion when it comes to skin care if that makes sense.

I'm always without sleep. I've got two kids. I understand sleep deprivation on a profound level.

I'm not sitting on a soapbox telling women what they should and shouldn't do, but I know what works for me.

Australia is a remarkable country with incredible technical and physical resources and a capacity to be a world leader in renewables.

The emoji still doesn't really speak to the complexity that actually - or the subtext that goes on between when people actually speak face-to-face.

I'm not interested in playing characters who see the world through my prism; I think the journey of understanding any character is to see how they tick and how they differ from you.

I think marriage is all about timing. Getting married is insanity; I mean, it's a risk - who knows if you're going to be together forever? But you both say, 'We're going to take this chance, in the same spirit.

I have the embarrassing thing where often if you're watching a film, you kind of go through the emotions and the thought stages that your character went through, but you sort of do it with Tourette's. So I end up often crying when I'm crying, and looking angry when I'm looking angry, so it's pretty ugly.

There's not a long, entrenched tradition of theatergoing in Australia.

I think when you fall in love, whether you're heterosexual, transgender, gay, lesbian, whatever, straight, you feel like it's happening to you for the first time.

There are very few issues that lie specifically in one region now. Polio in Syria doesn't affect Syria alone. I don't think any issue can ever be isolated into local politics these days, because we all know too much.

I can be a real pessimist. You know that when you win an Oscar, and you walk offstage, and your first thought is: 'Oh God, I've peaked.'

There are certain things in ancient practices that are not worth adhering to.

An actress once advised me, 'Make sure you do your own laundry - it will keep you honest.'

I haven't got many anecdotes. Maybe I should do something scandalous.