Penelope Cruz

I have stepped off the relationship scene to come to terms with myself. I have spent most of my adult life being 'someone's girlfriend', and now I am happy being single.

It's great working with my sister, because we are very close as a family - my brother, my sister and myself. We have a great relationship.

I never felt, 'Oh, I think I look good.' I always tend to be more in the insecure side. And I thought that has always been a way to protect myself. Because I don't trust the good feelings that can come from that.

Awards are great, as you get to meet up with friends and colleagues from your industry - a sort of reunion.

I am amazed about how everyone wants to know about my love life. They whisper to me, 'Tell me the truth? Is it true?' Who cares? Because we have this job, we are to say to everybody what we do, or with whom we sleep? It's a bit absurd, but that's why everybody lies so much.

I love Spanish food. My diet is the Mediterranean diet, which is good food. I eat well.

I am living for every day and trying to have less fear, less worry. But I have always worried about everything; it's in my nature. It's the thing that makes me suffer the most.

There was a point where I was making four movies a year. I was always on a set. I had no stories to tell. I was feeling empty. My life was just luggage and hotels and from set to set, from character to character. And one day, I said, 'And where is mine?' You know? And the moment I started to feel that fear, I stopped and I slowed down.

All those cliches, those things you hear about having a baby and motherhood - all of them are true. And all of them are the most beautiful things you will ever experience.

I don't know if I believe in marriage. I believe in family, love and children.

Sometimes you will do a close-up for a scene in the morning where you are totally distraught, then shoot the rest of that scene seven hours later. How do you hang on to that feeling all day without burning up, without going so far that you have nothing left to give when the cameras roll again?

It doesn't happen every day, but many nights my dreams are like a movie. I don't see normal movement - I see things in very complicated shots. That's why I do remember many of them.