Keira Knightley

I find it quite difficult on studio films because there are so many different executives and things like that that you have to go through, so very often getting that definitive opinion is actually quite difficult.

It's impossible. You try to have any kind of relationship with your family, with a man, or with a friend, and you have to be on the phone and the Internet the entire time.

I tried college for three months but I was desperately unhappy. I just wanted to perform. I was getting straight As but I had no friends and cried every day.

I always find it much easier when there's one person whose vision you're following, as opposed to many people.

Nice is the worst word.

If only I wasn't an atheist, I could get away with anything.

I started working when I was seven, and ever since then I've been saving for an apartment. Even before that I had a little jam jar designated for my apartment money.

It's fantastic to have the opportunity to work abroad, and do all that, but there is a certain point where you're just like, 'Oh, I'd love to work at home.'

But acting is very much a profession that is you're hot one moment and not the next - and that is totally cool. I think that's what I find most fascinating and most exciting about it - is that it can be gone in a puff of smoke.

And we're fortunate if we have parents who are great and loving and inspiring. But, unfortunately, there are people who don't have that.

When I was about 5 I think, I desperately wanted to be a pirate and have the hat and everything.

It's an interesting thing when you discover something about yourself. To go: 'Wow, I'm not the person I thought I was. I'm in the middle of something and I can't actually deal with it.'

I wasn't allowed to do commercials. I wasn't allowed to do TV series. I wasn't allowed to do soaps or basically anything that would mean I missed too much school.

I don't think I can call myself an actress yet. I just don't think my skill level is that high. I hope that with every job it gets better. But until I'm good, I can say I'm trying to be an actor, but I don't think I've completely made it.

It's all about perfection, isn't it?

I really believe that in this industry women have to be very true to themselves about what they're comfortable with.

I made a conscious decision to live my life the best way I could and that meant to publicise myself as little as possible.

I find more interesting roles for women in period pieces. I do personally like watching period films; I think you can really get lost in the fantasy of them.

I think everybody has the right to a private life.

All through my life what I've loved doing is watching movies. I love the escapism of film, I love stories. So it is incredible to be able to be in them as much as I am, to see them from the first stitch in a costume to the end product.

Film is a much lonelier process than theatre. You really don't have any rehearsal time in film. You don't shape it together... with theatre, there is a complete kind of family atmosphere. The sociable side of this business is the theatrical side, it really isn't the film side.

I see the world through my eyes. It's sometimes a strange world.

My upbringing is why I am the person I am today. I have very wise parents.

I am a slow reader. I always loved words, which is a strange thing given that I couldn't actually read them.

I'm doing a film now with a lot of guys as well, so at the end of that I will be growing a beard.