Michelle Yeoh

“Sometimes when I'm on the phone, someone will say, 'Yes, Mr. Yeoh.' And I'm thinking, 'I'm not Mr. Yeoh, man.'”

“When I made my first film, it was just an adventure. But after my first movie, I guess I got more of a feeling of what was happening around me.”

“As a producer, what you want to do is make the next hit. But you also want to lead the audience into wanting to watch different movies. You have to vary your content.”

“There is no guaranteed formula. And that's one of the interesting things about filmmaking. You could put $115 million in, and it doesn't guarantee success.”

“I love my martial arts and action movies. They give another dimension to the acting world: the emotional plus the physical.”

“When you love someone, you don't try to change them.”

“It's very important that I'm approaching a character that I've either not played before, or I can give it a different take.”

“I grew up in Malaysia, and Bollywood is really big there. As a result, I've grown up watching a lot of Hindi movies.”

“I gathered as much reading material about Aung San Suu Kyi and about Burma as I could. And I read every article and every book she had written. I also had 200 hours of footage of her to watch. I tried to discover who were her heroes and where he desire and strength to pursue democracy in a non-violent fashion came from.”

“It was like baptism by fire. There was no school for studying acting. You just have to take it upon yourself to learn from your peers. It's about opening your eyes, listening, and watching.”

“For me, beauty comes from natural happiness. I think that a woman glows, and a man, even, when they're healthy and they're happy.”

“In many ways, I feel I'm still as physically fit as I was 20 years ago because I've always been athletic.”

“India is a great talent pool of actors. I see Freida Pinto making it big in Hollywood, and I am sure many others can also make it.”

“We always see Aung San as a strong, tough woman. There are two stories running in parallel. You see the contradictions between the East and the West, and you see someone who does mundane and normal things - someone who's supposed to be a housewife - and then someone who's become important and imprisoned.”

“In one take, I had to do 24 combat sequences, which is hard. It makes you think, 'I'd better get on my toes again.'”

“I'm not a fashion victim, and I don't closely follow trends. I dress the way I feel comfortable because, at the end of the day, you have to be comfortable.”

“I have very supportive parents who said, 'Go and do what you want to do. Home is always here for you, and if you don't like it out there, come back. You can always do something different.' So when you have an option like that, you are able to choose roles or choose the things you want to be in.”

“Let's empower men and help them take a stand to stop acts of violence against women.”

“Why do we have 'Transformers 5 or 6?' Because young kids will go and see it four or five times.”

“I was struck by Suu Kyi's warmth and generosity. No matter how petite she looks, she exudes amazing strength. More than anything else, I felt like I already knew her, like she was an old friend, because I'd been watching her so intently, and she was exactly what I had figured she would be.”