“I knew I was a manic depressive when I was 13 or 14, and I loved it. I...” — Richard Dreyfuss Quote

I knew I was a manic depressive when I was 13 or 14, and I loved it. I always told people what I had, and I was always cresting on a manic wave. I used it, willingly and happily, and it was an extraordinary experience. When I got hit with the depressive side - Boom! - yes, it was horrible and unendurable, but that's part of the story.

Happiness has a bad rap. People say it shouldn't be your goal in life. Oh, yes it should.

Isn't it funny that God takes you and puts you through the unendurable, and then, at the moment you have just begun to understand it and have some wisdom, it ends?

I don't know what its like for most actors, but really clearly for myself acting has always been the fulfilment of personal fantasies. It isn't just art, its about being a person I've always wanted to be, or being in a situation, or being a hero.

Boom, I move to L.A. after doing 'Aftershock,' and I've been actually working here. So it's all been 'boom'; it's all been 'boom' everything. It's so exciting. It's been amazing. I'm a very lucky girl.

I was always intrigued with European cinema, and hated most American cinema. I didn't like the one, two, three - boom! style, with a neat and tidy ending. That was never my scene.

Ten years ago I was not heavily involved in the film world but on reflection it was a boom time with the mineral boom happening, so there was immense growth for industrial training films, documentaries to do with the mining, and the outback world.

In the mid-1990s, when Russia was undergoing a construction boom, I entered the real estate development market.