• She is intelligent and down-to-earth.

"Well, it's funny that you say 'What is it about the business' because 'What is it about the craft' is where it all started for me. I'd always been interested by human behavior and I think that acting has made me a more empathetic person. The other stuff that comes with it hasn't gotten in the way. I've managed to exist in this world for about nine years now without having any sort of negative side effects. What keeps me invested is the people that I meet, the work that I get to do, and the life that I'm getting to live, which is pretty exciting."

"When you get to a point where you've achieved things, it makes you say, 'I think there's more to be done.' You see a turn in the road and wonder, 'What would happen if I took that left?' So I just yearn to know the truth about who I might become outside the path I set out on. And I think I share that with a lot of my characters."

• She has her heart in the right place and is not afraid to make a statement.

"I'll always stand up for what I think is fair. I'm open to other people's points of view. And that's true artistically as well, because often it opens up a whole range of possibilities."

"Am I doing it right? I don't think all success and failure is judged by a career. I'm not married. I don't have children. Sometimes I wish I read more books than scripts. Did I choose the right road?"

"I think for women, it takes a while to take control of decisions. You think that everything is fate or destiny, you don't really make your choices. I think that summer was the first time I was able to say that I didn't want to follow through with it and deal with the consequences. It was really empowering. At the end of the summer I was unemployed but I was happy and I was proud. I was like, you know what, I'm done with being pushed around."

• She is amazingly talented and dedicated to her work.

"She is spookily talented." - Emily Blunt

"Amy has a little light on inside her that burns — sometimes a soft light, sometimes a hot little blue flame, but you are aware always of the light. It is her immediacy as an actress, that present quality that makes her special." - Meryl Streep

• She has an eye for great roles.

"She's going to be around for a very long time. You can see that through the films she's picked in the last two years." - Philip Seymour Hoffman

• She is multi-talented and has a wonderful singing voice.

"I sang before I acted. I was a dancer in musical theater.

• She has great respect for cinema and appreciates the Golden Age of Hollywood.

"I think I'm more suited to that period. I don't look very modern, that's for sure. I love older films like Breakfast at Tiffany's, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Vertigo. I wanted to be Kim Novak. I've watched Gone With the Wind about 40 times and was so into Scarlett O'Hara. I relate with the survivor in her, that feeling of doing what it takes to make things work. She's also who I learned my temper training from, so be careful!"

• By Jessi

"The reason I love Amy Adams is because she is a great role model and she is everything i aspire to be. She has a great work ethic and and cares about her movies and fans. Other stars do movies for the money, but (to me) Amy does them because she is passionate about the roles and wants to entertain people."