I, along with the critics, have never taken myself very seriously.

To me, acting is a matter of absolute concentration. You can laugh and giggle with your friends up to the minute the director says, "Action!" Then you snap your mind into shape and into the character that you're playing and relate to the people that you're acting with and forget everybody else that you've been joking with.

I find it rather tedious working with some actors who have to go into a corner and bounce up and down, shake their hands and arms, saying to the director, "Just a second - I'll be ready in a few minutes, " while all the other actors are waiting around to get in. Then they say, "OK! I'm ready now." And then they come on and do it exactly the same way they've done it in rehearsal.

People who know me well, call me Elizabeth. I dislike Liz.

You find out who your real friends are when you're involved in a scandal.

I don't pretend to be an ordinary housewife.

It is strange that the years teach us patience; that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waiting.