I was having my teens in my 30s.

Debate is so much better than denial.

I can talk myself so much into my part.

I wanted above all else not to be like my mum.

I don't want to give up acting - it's what I am.

That's why I'm an actress - escaping into a world.

Self worth is everything. Without it life is a misery.

In order to be creative you have to be allowed to fail.

The characters do have a life of their own; it's weird.

I didn't come into the business to get awards or titles.

I don't like being out of the crowd. It's lonely within a group.

The money isn't a lure. I've done very well out of this business.

I never had any acting heroes. I never really went to the theatre.

I went through bits of the 60s and thought myself a bit of a hippy.

I don't know if you can change things, but it's a drop in the ocean.

I was the little, funny one. I felt I was the child among grown women.

Stage is the most exciting. Film is lovely, because it's like a family.

We have to take risks with art. If we don't, it all becomes a bit boring

I'm too young at 50. I'm not grown up yet. There's part of everybody like that.

You can't help but feel a little bit like a mother to the younger cast members.

I keep seeing myself in my daughter, and I see my mother in me and in her. Bloody hell.

When I think of the future, I think of doing my washing so I've something to wear tomorrow.

I think comedy's something you can't learn. It's an instinct, which makes it rather elusive.

I'd like to think there'll be too much of real life going on for me to want to do much acting.

I felt my mother about the place. I don't think she haunts me, but I wouldn't put it past her.

Some people have a terrible stretch between family and work. It is a difficult thing to achieve.

I'm massively talented, and very, very beautiful in person; the public don't really realise that.

I was always someone who lived in the future all the time, it was always the next thing - dreams of escape.

It's very strong after the birth. It's extraordinary. You can't watch anything to do with kids being harmed.

Suddenly, you are very much in the present, and you learn it's really the place where you should always live.

I was feeling very irritable. It was that difficult time of the month when the credit card statement arrives.

I was asked about doing a nude shoot for men's magazine GQ. I thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever heard.

There were people asking 'Can women be funny?' People still ask that. It's like asking: 'Can women breathe in and out?'

I couldn't watch Tom and Jerry. The cruelty was too much. I had all these strange images, of tiny animals, all mixed up.

Shakespeare - it's not funny. No matter how they try to make Shakespeare funny, when it's meant to be funny it's not funny.

The way I relax is I think, 'I haven't got anything coming up.' I like to know there are months ahead when I've got nothing.

Being a mother adds another emotional dimension, a feel for children that I didn't have before I had one. They were a pain before.

I'm interested in politics, what's going on in the world, how people behave and how your life is often in the hands of other people.

Jane Austen was an extraordinary woman; to actually be able to survive as a novelist in those days - unmarried - was just unheard of.

I've never done so much bloody crying in my life. I was always moaning about how hard it was when we were shooting, how awful I felt.

It's getting better but men still earn more and there are more jobs for them. Ageism is a big thing. Parts for women disappear as you get older.

I can understand why people get annoyed at being remembered for one thing, but a lot of actors aren't remembered for anything. I don't mind that.

As soon as I gave birth, it was as if you understand them. They become people, not kids. You start to identify with them. You see yourself in them.

My grandmother lived with us for a short time while I was a child. Old people tend to be slightly more eccentric - they can behave the way they want.

It seems that when you get to a certain age you almost give yourself permission to misbehave and say what you think. People allow it, with very old people.

I'm writing a novel about two actresses who go to New York, because that's what I know about. One has lost touch with reality, disappears and is picked up by a man.

I'd love to be in another film, but they haven't asked me. I think it's a shame but the prospects of me doing another one now are remote. Please do campaign on my behalf.

Oh all the time when Victoria Wood and I did our series. There were people asking 'Can women be funny?' People still ask that. It's like asking: 'Can women breathe in and out?'

I'm more selective now I've got a family. I don't want to work all the time. My daughter's 12; I don't want to miss out on her life. Soon she'll be a teenager; she won't want me around.

I always loved my mother, felt loved, but she was judgmental. Her father in Ireland didn't approve of women generally, and she took on his values. She believed her own mother was foolish.

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