Quotes from Carrie-Anne Moss

People tell you the world looks a certain way. Parents tell you how to think. Schools tell you how to think. TV. Religion. And then at a certain point, if you're lucky, you realize you can make up your own mind. Nobody sets the rules but you. You can design your own life.

Eventually I want to be a full-time mother who works occasionally - and being an actor you have that freedom.

Everyone has different issues, and I think for a great deal of women, those issues are self-esteem. And for me, I really wanted to understand it and get through it because I didn't want to be an actress afraid of getting older. I refuse to live that way.

I have no major regrets. I've made the conscious decision not to look at life that way. I always try to learn something - to take something away from the situation.

It's extremely difficult and very challenging to be a woman in film and television. Just showing up in this business forces you to know yourself. But I learned how to deal with rejection and get tough when I was working as a model - it taught me how to put myself out there. In a way, my time modelling was a preparation for life.

I like stories about the world, where we're at. I like to explore humanity. I like to explore my own humanity.

With scripts I've always looked at them and thought about kids, you know? Thought about the world and the impact... I won't do nudity and I never felt comfortable with that whole idea or things with huge sexual content - not my thing.

Before that film, I was nobody. Each job I got, I was so excited. Each paycheck I got, I thought, 'Wow, I'm getting paid to act.' But 'The Matrix' gave me so many opportunities. Everything I've done since then has been because of that experience. It gave me so much.

I'm a very simple person. I don't use computers.

I think we all have mechanisms that we use, each of us individually, to deal with pain that we've had or just dealing with life or whatever. Everyone's story is different, but we all have some kind of mechanism that we use to deal with stuff, that we create pretty young.

That first year after a child, I kind of just hunker down at home - I surrender to that side of me. I don't try to get my body back or be in the world; I go the opposite way.

I trained for months to figure out how to ride a motorcycle. I have kind of a major fear of them. I have a major fear of going at fast speeds without any kind of protection, no helmet, an actor on the back with no helmet. I felt very afraid to do it. I love that I did it and overcame the fear and was able to do that.

The thing I love about music is that if a singer is good, let's say, you are instantly transported to that emotion. Acting is a more drawn-out process.

When you play a doctor, you have to look like you can do it but you don't actually go and do it. It's not like you learn how to cut open somebody and go do surgery. You have to think of a human being and not play the idea of what that would look like.

I feel so lucky that I had so many opportunities.

The writers are so smart, I can only imagine. I would love to be in that room. I love the creative process.

You try not to judge the characters you're playing.

I will never do another kung fu movie again.

Feeling strong is important, and to feel in your body is a vital part of being a woman, regardless of whether you're a mother or not.

I definitely acknowledge that 'The Matrix' and Trinity had an influence on female action-oriented characters in television and in film. I think it's awesome.

When I did the first 'Matrix,' after it came out, I had a woman come up to me and just thank me for Trinity because she was an action writer. She said she was getting really good opportunities now.

I don't have any huge desire to show you all that I'm not tough and strong, that I'm all feminine and soft. That's not a huge longing that I have because I know who I am.

Even though I thought of myself as soft and squishy, I always had this great will and focus and was just so driven.

When I did 'Memento,' independent film was where all the really good stuff was.