The one thing that I appear to have been given, bearing in mind that I am capable of being very, very scatty and extremely lazy, is the ability to concentrate on something I choose to give my time to.

How can you be a recluse in a house full of children, even if you had the inclination to be, which I don't?

Ireland was a place for the renewal of hope and I still see it like that.

A voice is such a deep, personal reflection of character.

The more articulate somebody is, the more suspicious I am of them. I like to feel that the important things remain unsaid.

England is obsessed with where you came from, and they are determined to keep you in that place, be it in a drawing room or in the gutter.

As actors, we're all encouraged to feel that each job is the last job. They plant some little electrode in your head at an early stage and you think, 'Be grateful, be grateful, be grateful.'