Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I feel sexier in my 40s than I did in my 20s and 30s.
I was always drawn to standing up in front of people.
I really resent how expensive everything is in London.
My dad's Scottish, and I always used to say I was, too.
I take pleasure in discovering resourcefulness inside me.
If you aren't hot in Hollywood, you feel like you're in Siberia.
I woke up famous for about a minute, then stopped being famous again.
I want to be around when I'm 60; I don't want to be some flash in the pan.
I suppose I'm quite manly in lots of ways, but I like to be made to feel like a woman.
I'm not really Bond girl material, and that's fine by me. I'm a grafter; I'm not a star.
I can't think of anything better than being considered a poster girl for intelligent women.
I love radio interviews; it's all about multitasking and, like all good women, I can do that.
I suppose I'm what you'd called a character actress, so, often, my characters are quite extreme.
My mum is still totally rocking it. She's appearing in 'Game of Thrones,' which is massively cool.
I like cake, I swear a lot, and I hardly ever go to the hairdresser. I don't think I'm a movie star.
There is a sense of shame that comes with unemployment. I didn't become a movie star, and I was a size 14.
Having brothers - I love that. They don't take any rubbish, and they beat you up if you've been misbehaving.
I want to see craggy old faces on the telly. I find them infinitely more fascinating than pretty young ones.
My pa is a brilliant, charming man. We go out and play together and laugh a lot. He has a twinkle in his eye.
Not to harp on too much about Ma, but it's a misconception that she is formidable. She calls herself a patsy.
I do have strong feelings about the aristocracy: they serve a purpose, but it's a sort of insular strand of society.
I know I'm not a hotly in-demand movie star, but I'm good at my job. And I want to keep working for the next 40 years.
I eat healthily, I do ballet and exercise, and I'm toned and tight, but I take up space, and I don't aspire to anorexia.
You're in this heightened emotional state from the beginning of the play. It's like when you first have your heart broken.
There's a bit of a Bertie Wooster about my father. He's very easy-going, he never judges people, and we get on brilliantly.
When you're on the verge of depression, a good leveller is to put one foot in front of the other and do some manual labour.
Kristin Scott Thomas is terrific. She has a career in France and a career in England: how cool is that? I wouldn't mind that.
If you get asked to play a part that makes you feel frightened, then you have to do it. 'Medea' is the opportunity of a lifetime.
I won't change the way I talk for anyone. I'll do it for work but not because I think someone will like me more if I take the edge off.
My instinct is to surround myself with the company of wise, witty, wonderful women, and I have a great bank of female friends of all ages.
I was raised to please people in authority, and I'd also come from a sheltered boarding school, so I was very naive and young for my years.
I was a bit of a backstage baby, but I wasn't at all precocious, and there was never a light bulb moment when I decided to go on the stage.
The tabloids had a field day with 'Tipping The Velvet,' which was great for the viewing figures but not necessarily for the actors involved.
I remember typing up my dissertation sitting in a horse box - I didn't qualify for a caravan - on a set in Pinewood on my first film, 'Still Crazy.'
I love growing older. Normally, I don't bother with make-up. This face in the mirror is changing. I've got new lines from smiling at the sprog so much.
Just laughing a lot would be the most important thing in a relationship to me. And a smattering of trust. A dollop of laughter - and an icing of trust.
In my bones, I feel like a Scot. I always have. My mum's from Doncaster, so whatever that is as a combination of Scotland and Yorkshire. It isn't southern.
'Ambitious' is seen as a dirty word, especially when it comes to women. But what being ambitious actually means is to achieve distinction in your chosen field.
I used to worry about the lack of roles for women over 40. But suddenly, everyone has realised it's interesting to have a drama with a woman at the centre of it.
I had been kind of quite porky and happy at boarding school and not self-conscious at all; then, suddenly, I found myself in auditions being examined, and it made me angry.
I was brought up playing games and still do ferociously. I once played Connect Four on set with Bill Nighy and Richard E. Grant for so long that the assistant director got cross.
My mum was working in London, so I went to school there until I was 12. But every holiday would be in Scotland, and when I went to boarding school, I'd either be there or Scotland.
I was not one of those children hanging on Ma's coat-tails following her round sets. I'd go to the theatre after school if she was working, but I didn't even know what an agent was.
I did ballet as a child and started again seven years ago. I love that you hear this exquisite music, and for a moment, you feel like a thing of beauty; it's changed my awareness of my body.
I panicked in my 20s and 30s about whether I was doing the right thing. I was an excited puppy, wanting to please people and feeling guilty that I'd had a privileged education and an acting career.
Scotland was home to me from when I was 12 up until I was 22. I decided to drop my English bit, and when anyone asked where I came from, I always said Scotland. It really shaped the fibres of my being.
I do panic when I'm out of work, and there have been long periods of that. And I'm not a good auditionee. I talk myself out of jobs in front of the director and suggest other people who would be better.
I teach kids to read on a Saturday for this charity called Real Action. It's a voluntary school because lots of the kids around my area of London are from immigrant families and need extra help with reading.
I find the idea that some kids go into acting because of their parents butt-clenchingly embarrassing. I've gone out of my way to prove myself as a separate being. I don't want to be seen as a subset of someone else.
I remember I went to audition for the first Daniel Craig Bond film, 'Casino Royale.' I was there in this Versace dress, and I remember looking in the mirror, and I couldn't have felt less like a Bond girl if I tried.