Adams: "My job as an actress is to make things work and come up with reasons of my own and not just fill in the blanks for anybody else, you know what I mean?"

Adams: "That's how I prepare for anything - I read whatever I can get my hands on, talk to people. I'm a bit of a nerd like that."

Adams: "I'm much more comfortable speaking through my characters' voices than my own."

Adams: "If I had a project that I had auditioned for and I was getting close to getting it, I didn't want to tell anybody because I thought then I wouldn't get it, but in reality that really had no bearing on whether or not I got a part."

Adams: "Something I'm going to try to really instill in my own family is a lot of tradition."

Adams: “I’m very honest and straightforward, and so I’ve looked at my husband’s artwork and been like, ‘You could do better than that.’”

[On being a quiet person]

Adams: "Before I almost felt like it was a deficit, because I thought to be an actress you had to make people pay attention to you, and that’s just not my energy. It took a long time to be OK with that because you would see people receive a lot of opportunities based on something intangible, and it’s frustrating. But during my 20s and early 30s, when I wasn’t really working, I realised, OK, I’ll just focus on my work, I don’t have a thing."

Adams: "I don't seek revenge, but I never forget. And I make it hard to repair, which is not a great quality because if people held me to that standard, no one would be around me - ever."

Adams: "My natural response to a stressful situation is to shut down. I do weird things, like, I don't cry, I get really cold."

Adams: "My husband is very optimistic and I consider myself a lot more cynical and pragmatic."

Adams: "I was a pretty scrappy, tough kid; I got in all sorts of fights at school. I defended myself - boys didn't mess with me. But as one of seven children, you have to fight for everything anyway."

Adams: "As an actress people always tease me like: if there's anything you can do to make yourself unattractive you will do it."

Adams: "I have to say I've been lucky in that way in that I've been able to go from different films and different genres with different challenges."

Adams: "I have a hard time articulating the emotional experience of working on a film. Even when I have meetings on films or discussing them with directors, I find that's my biggest challenge. Different words mean different things to people."

Adams: "There's such a work ethic involved in theatre that you can't learn in L.A."

Adams: "I like not being noticed. It has been a struggle because I love performing, but if I'm in a group of people and someone has a bigger personality, I'm like, 'Go ahead, and have fun!'"

Adams: "I think a lot of times we don't pay enough attention to people with a positive attitude because we assume they are naive or stupid or unschooled."

Adams: "I find that it's the simple things that remind you of family around the holidays."

Adams: "I tend to be really pragmatic, but ultimately tend to be attracted to people who pull me into more spontaneity. I've really learned that, through surrender, the best experiences of my life have happened."

Adams: "I have worked with some of the meanest people in the world. You can't do anything to intimidate me."

Adams: "I like Cinderella, I really do. She has a good work ethic. I appreciate a good, hard-working gal. And she likes shoes. The fairy tale is all about the shoe at the end, and I'm a big shoe girl."

Adams: "How I work is I work from of very character-driven place. And I trust the writers."

Adams: “My mother has a really strong sense of self, which is probably more inspiring to me as a grownup than it was to me as a kid. Back then, I was like, ‘Mom, can you not show up in the cool jumpsuit and the spiky hair?’”

Adams: "I didn't necessarily fit in in high school. I felt very awkward. I still feel completely awkward and weird in my body sometimes. I'm hoping that's going to go away, but I've just embraced it as reality."

Adams: "I research every part thoroughly. I talk it out with my actor friends, but then I throw it all away when I get to the set. You have to be spontaneous."

Adams: "Being an actress hasn't made me insecure. I was insecure long before I declared I was an actress."

Adams: "I think that I've always been attracted to characters who are positive and come from a very innocent place. I think there's a lot of room for discovery in these characters, and that's something I always have fun playing."

Adams: "I'm not the kind of actress who asks a lot of questions of my directors unless it's something I really need to know."

Adams: "I grew up as a Mormon, and that had more of an impact on my values than my beliefs. I'm afraid I will always feel the weight of a lie. I'm very hard on myself anyway. Religious guilt carries over too. You can't really misbehave without feeling badly about it. At least, I can't."

Adams: "I used to have a lot of superstitions, and then I realized that it was kind of hogwash. Once I let go of them, I relaxed a lot."

Adams: "I'm just grateful I didn't have to spend my early 20s in front of paparazzi cameras."

Adams: "When I died my hair red the first time, I felt as if it was what nature intended. I have been accused of being a bit of a spitfire, so in that way, I absolutely live up to the stereotype. The red hair suits my personality. I was a terrible blonde!"

Adams: "It's just very homey in Ireland. It's very comforting and comfortable. There's lots of fireplaces with fires. It's just really cozy."

Adams: "Being pregnant finally helped me understand what my true relationship was with my body - meaning that it wasn't put on this earth to look good in a swimsuit."

Adams: "I do love shoes that make my legs longer. I have the upper body of someone who's 5ft 8in, so high heels help me even out the discrepancy."

The Guardian: Adams’ suggestion that she lacks charisma says more about the expectations on Hollywood celebrities today than it does about her. She is extremely engaging, serious but with a hint of a straight-talking broad once she gets going. Moreover, her focus on her work is probably what has helped her maintain a near spotless acting career.

The Guardian: Adams is certainly a star, but she is not really a celebrity. She has not exploited her personal life for her career, and gives away very little about herself. “I think the more people are concerned with me, the less they can invest in my characters,” she says, and she’s probably right.

The Guardian: Has becoming a mother changed how she accesses emotion on screen? “I definitely feel more raw and more open to empathy, and that helps. But what’s really changed is how I process work,” she says.

New York Times: Part of Adams’s greatness as an actor is that she gives herself over to her roles so completely. She doesn’t showboat, calling attention to her technique with histrionics and self-flattering moments, but instead surrenders herself to her characters. She builds histories for them, working on details and finding triggers instead of opening a vein like some performers do. “I don’t need to relive trauma to empathize with it,” Adams told me.