In the July issue of Vanity Fair, out next week, Angelina Jolie shares her innermost feelings about life, love, marriage, and her career with writer Rich Cohen. The full story will be available on VF.com on Monday, but in the meantime here is an exclusive preview of her frank remarks about birth, babies, nannies, and more.

Angelina Jolie on being pregnant:
“I love it. It makes me feel like a woman. It makes me feel that all the things about my body are suddenly there for a reason. It makes you feel round and supple, and to have a little life inside you is amazing. Also, I’m fortunate. I think some women have a different experience depend-ing on their partner. I think that affects it. I happen to be with somebody who finds pregnancy very sexy. So that makes me feel very sexy.”

Angelina Jolie on her international family:
“When I was growing up I wanted to adopt, because I was aware there were kids that didn’t have parents. It’s not a humanitarian thing, because I don’t see it as a sacrifice. It’s a gift. We’re all lucky to have each other. I look at Shiloh—because, obviously, physically, she is the one that looks like Brad and I when we were little—and say, ‘If these were our brothers and sisters, how much would we have known by the time we were six that it took into our 30s and 40s to figure out?’ I suppose I’m giving them the childhood I always wished I had.”

Angelina Jolie on Shiloh’s birth:
“We were in this little hospital in Africa when Shi was born. I don’t think there was anybody else in the hospital. It was just a little cottage, the three of us. It ended up being the greatest thing…. I had a C-section and I found it fascinating. I didn’t find it a sacrifice and I didn’t find it a painful experience. I found it a fascinating miracle of what a body can do.”

Angelina Jolie on nannies:
“We don’t ever have anybody spend the night. We may have to adjust that when the next one comes. But we do have ladies that work with us, and they’re also from different cultures and back-grounds. One lady’s a Vietnamese teacher—wonderful. One is of Congolese descent from Bel-gium. Another is from the States and is really creative and does art programs.”

Angelina Jolie on artists as parents:
“Artists raise their kids differently,” she said. “We communicate to the point where we probably annoy our children. We have art around the house, we have books, we go to plays, we talk. Our focus is art and painting and dress-up and singing. It’s what we love. So I think you can see how artists in some way raise other artists.”