You could say people are living longer because of the decline in religion. Not many people believe in the hereafter, so they keep going.

All of the press and stuff - that's the scary stuff. The acting is what I got trained to do.

Being a single girl in New York... it's what you should be doing in your twenties!

Drama school is fundamentally practical. I didn't write any essays, so I came out with a BA honors degree in acting.

I came out of my mum's stomach going, 'I want to be an actor!'

I grew up around horses, but acting and riding on camera is a whole different thing.

I long for the countryside. That's where I get my calm and tranquillity - from being able to come and find a spot of green.

I spent most of my life watching HBO series wishing that at some point in my career I might be able to work with them.

I'd give my right arm to be, like, a random extra on 'Girls,' just to walk past one of the scenarios. I'd love that more than anything.

Music is something that's always been a huge part of my life.

My rule is never to look at anything on the Internet.

The '90s were really just bad for fashion and hair.

My life is unrecognisable compared to what it was - 'Game of Thrones' has opened doors that were never there before. But it can be dangerous to see it in those terms, I think. It's best to take it as it comes and work as hard as you can, and hopefully the other things fall into place.

My mother taught me how to apply my own makeup at 13 years old, and the most important lesson I learned is to never touch my eyebrows and to cleanse, tone, and moisturize twice a day.

You can't come out of drama school and think, 'It's all going to be amazing.' You have to expect to work in a bar for at least five years and be a waitress for maybe two!

Before Truman Capote, journalism and non-fiction weren't taken very seriously.

Before Truman, journalism and non-fiction weren't taken very seriously.

His theory was that non-fiction could be as artful as fiction.

In the writing of memoirs, as in the production of shows, too much caution causes the audience to nod and think of other channels.

I don't think Capote loved Smith. But he did make a deep connection. It upset some people, because that had never been the approach to journalistic crime writing, to look into the mind of the killer.