Half of me is Streep and the other half is Wilkinson from Lincolnshire so I come by it honestly, this part. - Meryl Streep

Hollywood to me is what it is to you. It's something other than what I am. I sit outside it.

I don't know what my image is. I went to France to publicize Marvin's Room, and one really smart young woman journalist said to me "You know, what I told people I was going to interview Meryl Streep, they were so excited...all ze woman in my office, they love you so much. But ze men - they are afraid of you."

[On the situation for women in Afghanistan] Today in Kabul a female cat has more freedom than a woman. A cat may go sit on her front stoop and feel the sun on her face, she may chase a squirrel in the park. [...] A squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan today because the public parks have been closed to women and girls by the Taliban.
A bird may sing in Kabul, but a girl may not in public. This is extraordinary. This is a suppression of the natural law.
The way that this culture, this society has been upended, is a cautionary tale for the rest of the world.