Growing up, I wanted blond hair.

I'm not a religious person at all.

I really want to work with Mike Leigh.

I really want to get into feature films.

I just really wish I'd met my grandfather.

I just love being in the middle of nowhere.

I don't have a great relationship with food.

There is a wealth of fabulous actresses in England.

Who hasn't had an argument with their mother-in-law?

My Irish identity is important as it's a part of who I am.

I'm not a football fan, and not remotely interested in it.

I've no desire to be away from my family for 16 hours a day.

My kids will never need a bodyguard because they'll have me.

As long as you're chasing something, that keeps you alive, right?

It makes a lot of people cringe, the idea of being a team player.

I will always worry about where my career is going and am I any good.

I was always quite mature as a child and as I get older I'm regressing.

Getting pregnant proved to be a hell of a shock but it's really exciting.

Because I don't live there anymore, I've fallen in love with London again.

I used to be nervous about not working and so would work for the sake of it.

I'm only 5ft 2in so a significant increase in weight is really going to be noticed.

I am very scatty, I don't follow things through, I forget things. I am not perfect.

I was pregnant with my first child and so gloriously happy. I felt fecund and powerful.

I take the kids horse riding every weekend at Quob Stables - the people there are lovely.

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) runs in my family, as do other mental health problems.

The main thing I've done for my children is not to give them a stupid name, like actors do.

I think I've got some actor's form of ADHD. I just can't do the same thing day in, day out.

I want to interact creatively with the directors I work with - it's a thrilling way to work.

Sometimes, people are attracted to each other without knowing what or why or when it happens.

I've made a lot of mistakes in my career but the biggest mistake I've made is to turn down work.

I am all for high art but I owe it to myself to be clever about it and do commercial things too.

I mean, the human race wouldn't continue if anyone told you how hard it is having kids, would it?

I never discuss my troubles in a relationship. It's best to just keep those thoughts to yourself.

I watched 'Lagerfeld Confidential,' which was such an insight into the daily life of a maverick designer.

I know that people in the public eye are always being chipped away at by very cynical attitudes in the press.

At first I didn't want to get involved with another actor. But Rupert is a lovely man who is clearly a great dad.

Yoga is great for easing my back pain. It also helps me keep stress at bay, which is something I can suffer from.

I feel better now at 38 then I did when I was 17. But then, when I was 17 I did have the attitude of a 40 year-old.

The actor's job is to put themselves in the shoes of the character they are trying to portray as truthfully as possible.

There's still, dare I say it, a cultural propaganda against the Irish, that we are, as women, 'feisty.' I hate that word.

I didn't grow up reading magazines; I was very much in an environment where that would have been deemed trivial, frivolous.

I moved to London when I was 18 to develop my acting career, but I still love going home to Ireland to recharge my batteries.

The thing that strikes a chord with me... as a mother... is to think of my 17-year-old son fighting would be just terrifying.

I can be a totally different person from one day to the next, so it is difficult for me to stay in one role over a prolonged period.

When growing up, there were never any conversations about the past, because if you don't ask the questions, you never get the answers.

I'm obviously slightly ill, because there is a burning desire to be perfect in me. It's probably the Catholic, or the ex-Catholic in me.

There's a difference between loneliness and solitude. You pursue solitude, I think. But loneliness is a completely different isolating thing.

I don't want to be known as 'oh, Dervla, when she's on stage she's very good but she's terribly dreary', or 'another heavy night with Kirwan.'

When I look at a magazine and I see Kate Winslet, I will buy it because Kate lends it a sense of achievement: she is brilliant, sexy, a mother.

My favourite designers are Stella McCartney, Balenciaga, Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel and Givenchy, but I wish I had loads of money to spend on them.

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