Blanchett: "Some ideas, like what you're going to do with your life, take time to form."

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

Blanchett: "Who would want a face that hasn't seen or lived properly, hasn't got any wrinkles that come with age, experience and laughter? Not me, anyway."

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

Blanchett: "I live my life parallel with my work, and they are both equally important. I'm always amazed how much people talk about celebrity and fame. I don't understand the attraction."

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

Blanchett: "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?"

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

Blanchett: "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."

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

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

Blanchett: "When you're onstage, you're acutely aware of the reaction of a particular group of people, because it's like a wave."

Blanchett: "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."

Blanchett: "It's important to travel and move and have a continual set of experiences so you've got more to feed back into your work. For me, it's a natural thing."

Blanchett: "Believe it or not, I'm pretty good at just doing nothing."

Blanchett: "You can't be trying to make a film that pleases all people, you know, so it's not a concern of mine."

Blanchett: "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."

Blanchett: "I think it's always good to take on things that at first seem bigger than you. Then you just try and surmount them."

Blanchett: "I feel very comfortable - literally and metaphorically - in my skin."

Blanchett: "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."

Blanchett: "Happiness is fleeting - I think that's the main lesson I have learned."

Blanchett: "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."

Blanchett: "You can't really achieve anything in three years."

Blanchett: "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."

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

Blanchett: "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."

Blanchett: "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."

Blanchett: "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."

Blanchett: "Well, I've never looked upon myself as being a beauty, per se."

Blanchett: "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."

Blanchett: "Passion is a quality I admire in a woman."

Blanchett: "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."

Blanchett: "If you know you are going to fail, then fail gloriously."

Blanchett: "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."

Blanchett: "I'm one of those strange beasts who really likes a corset."

Blanchett: "I don't know, maybe my sons will be gay."

Blanchett: "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."

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