At boarding school you had to wear your name across your chest and your back, and obviously I had a pretty funny name. It wasn't Brown or Smith or Hughes.

Blank House was exactly a nice empty sheet where nothing was accountable because you were so naughty that you were in Blank House.

When I did Taming of the Shrew, I was very tired, and I decided to have a holiday and make a documentary.

The best part of learning any profession, when you're really going through those huge stretching escalated times of learning and energy, is when you want to do it so much.

I learnt the theory of movement, which I still teach sometimes. I was very, very ambitious to learn a skill.

I was often very, incredibly naughty, and if I didn't come home at tea time I used to be sent to bed without any dinner. But people used to bring me things: I was better fed in bed.

The most surprising thing for my mother and father was when I was actually earning more money than them by the time I was about 18. They thought I was going to be the ne'er do well, who they'd have to keep worrying about.