• HER MASCULINE SIDE
"I enjoy playing a woman with a masculine bent, a woman you can have a beer with. Xena is threads of my character taken to extremes."

• GABRIELA SABATINI
"I modelled Xena on her She's how a warrior princess ought to look "

• GREASE
"This fall, I'm doing Grease! for seven weeks on Broadway - the Rizzo role that Brooke Shields and Rosie O'Donnell have played. Do you think they're going to cast me as Olivia Newton-John? Get real! I'm studying voice and dance to prepare."

• WOMEN
"I am a woman's woman. I love hanging out with women."

• SERENDIPITY
"I got  Xena through some incredible feat of serendipity. Somebody else pulled out of the role. She had been training for a month and got sick so she couldn't do it. They rejected me ar first. One studio executive said, 'Are you crazy?' I'm from New Zealand and they wanted an American actress. I'm very grateful to those Americans who turned down the role I finally got."

• KEVIN SORBO
"We have no competition whatever He's my big brother, and I love him. Just because Xena came from Hercules' rib doesn't mean I want to knock him off."

• SINGING
"I sing in the direct-to-video animated Hercules and Xena movie. The song is a real kid-pleaser. It's a pop ballad. If that's a success, I'm thinking of doing Sappho's greatest hits."

• MUSIC
"I love listening to the Grateful Dead, Nina Simone, Lyle Lovett, kd lang, jazz."

• HER MENTORS
"Susan Sarandon and Helen Mirren are my mentors. They're sensual, fiercely intelligent, and bloody good at their jobs."

• EATING
"I love to eat. I eat beans with sausages for breakfast or porridge and a couple of eggs. It's dull but it sticks all day. And I have a big lunch. My all-time favourite is lamb shanks. I generally would't care if I ever saw meat again, but I do need it because it helps with the bruises. I don't own a set of scales - I just know if I fit in my clothes. I have a sweet tooth, particularly for fattening frozen yoghurt."

• FAME
"The whole fame thing makes me giggle. I just roll with the punches."

• HER HERITAGE
"Did you know that women in New Zealand had the vote before other women anywhere else in the world? We're strong because it was a hard land to colonise."

• HER XENA COSTUME
"It's very light and heavy leather. I wish it was a caftan, but you can't high-kick someone in a caftan. The problem is, nothing looks like leather - lycra films shiny. Then there's the copper plating on the outside. I feel as if my whole abdomen is in a straitjacket."

• HAIR DYE
"I'm naturally fair-haired. It's really brutal on my hair to dye it raven black for Xena."

• BEING CONSIDERED A ROLE-MODEL
"It's too much responsibility to bear because it's all I can do to be a good role model to my daughter Daisy. I don't need other people's kids on my plate."

• BEING INEPT AT FOREIGN LANGUAGES
"I speak good German, okay French, but poor Italian. I hate that I'm not better at languages."

• DIVORCE
"It's awful. You feel like you're losing your kid and you can't defend yourself. You can't speak ill of the father. You can be persecuted, but you can't persecute. Your kid thinks you don't care. There have been moments when I've had to fight every natural urge to strike back."

• CRITICISMS OF HER 'HOKEY' NAME
"Hey, I toyed with Rita Reckless for a time! Lawless is my ex-husband's name. My maiden name was Lucy Ryan. When I first got married, I thought nobody was ever going to take me seriously with this Lawless name and then I just got over it. I believe I couldn't have thought up a better name for somebody who plays a warrior princess."

• HER INABILITY TO FIGHT
"I sat in a restaurant and watched a man hitting his girlfriend outside in the street. I wanted to intervene but I can't really fight. Instead, I sneaked over and talked to the woman when she came in the restaurant, telling her she didn't have to stand for that."

• RUMOURS
"Yes, I'm divorced from my first husband. Yes, I'm seeing someone. No, he's not an actor! No! No! No! Yes, he's connected with the show [She's dating Rob Tapert.]"

• HER LACK OF CO-ORDINATION
"Honestly, before I trained for the series I felt I never had eye-brain-hand coordination. I could never play a musical instrument even though I had a good ear. I studied piano for eight years and can hardly play a note now."

• GETTING HURT
"My body is covered with bruises from filming the show. I hate that I hurt so much all the time, but you learn to live with it. Then, while I was taping a skit on horseback for The Tonight Show, I was injured. I got multiple pelvic fractures. I don't think I'll ever get on a horse again without thinking of Christopher Reeve. I wont ski for that reason - I don't want to hurt myself."

• COMPUTERS
"I'm a computer retard. I don't have the time to learn. I don't even own one. Besides, I'd be a bit shy about the Internet. You don't know what people are saying about you. I have friends who keep me posted and messages often get through to me."