Tell him I mind having to look pretty, that's what I mind, because it is so much more of an effort.

Difficult for actors to extemporise in nineteenth-century English. Except for Robert Hardy and Elizabeth Spriggs, who speak that way anyway.

Don't ever go on a diet. Just don't. Walk away. Diets are the spawn of Satan.

I think that the Bible as a system of moral guidance in the 21st century is insufficient, to put it mildly. I feel quite strongly that we need a new moral lodestone if we can't rely on what is inside our own selves. Which I think, actually, is pretty reliable.

Laughter is a celebration of our failings. That's what clowns are for. And that's what I am.

Is love a fancy or a feeling.... or a Ferrars?

The thing that influenced me most in relation to 'Nanny McPhee' were the Westerns I watched with my father. All the Spaghetti Westerns; all the Virginians; all the High Chaparrals. Because if you think about the form, it's a stranger from out of town.