Helen McCrory Quotes

It's what people create that makes my heart stop.

I've often sat down with people talking about a film I've been in, and they haven't realized I was in it.

I can sleep anywhere! I can come off stage during the interval of a play, lie down for four minutes then wake up feeling better.

I was a real art freak when I was a teenager.

I use my awards as doorsteps. Others are in the office or in little cubbyholes in our library – they go between the books, because they actually look like arty pieces

I think change is good because it teaches you that it's nothing to be frightened of.

I'm half Scottish, half Welsh and I regard red hair as perfectly ordinary. And to set the record straight, contrary to reports, he has never referred to himself as the 'Ginger Ninja'.

People who are exceptionally intelligent are often lonely because there are few people as intelligent as them. I have two little children and everyone says: 'I hope they're doing well in school. I hope they're bright.' And I think: why would anyone want their children to be the brightest? Academia is a lonely world.

Actually, I'm looking forward to being 50. Because to me, that's when a woman is at the pinnacle of her femininity and her womanhood.

My own parents were very un-neurotic, so I never thought that I had to change enormously in order to become a parent.

When I was 14 I told my mother I intended to be in the House of Commons in the morning, in court in the afternoon and on stage in the evening. She realised then a fantasist had been born.

I had a great start in television; the first thing I did was an episode of Performance called The Entertainer with Michael Gambon playing Archie Rice.

People are not considerate of others. They tend not to consider themselves as all living together, but see themselves only as individuals.

I spent my teenage years in Paris when my dad was stationed there, and I'd look at women in their forties and think, 'That's the age I want to be.'

A script is only as good as the director who's making it.

So often when you meet child actors, they're weird - they're freaks. No, I mean it, they're really odd people.

To be honest, my husband and my children are my best friends.

I think it's very important not to grow up with the unhealthy amount of attention that is sometimes put on people because they are 'actors'.

I'm a very positive person. My grandmother taught me that happiness is both a skill and a decision, and you are responsible for the outcome.

I feel as though my life is bathed in golden sunlight. And the really wonderful thing is that I know it.

I was lucky to learn early in life that you need money for food and shelter, but there's no ambition in having money in the bank for the sake of it!

Working in films, there are hundreds of odd moments.

If you're constantly frightened of being unhappy, how bloody exhausting must that be?

I love London, and it's a privilege for my children to grow up here.

I listen to Radio 4 all the time. I didn't go to university, so that's my further education.

Music really influenced me when I was growing up. I did go through a Jimi Hendrix phase. My hair was naturally quite afro, and I wore low-slung jeans with very high heels. Siouxsie and the Banshees had a lot to answer for. I was in a top hat with peacock feathers and thigh-high black boots. I was 17 -- old enough to know better.

As I've got older, I feel more confident in my body, so wouldn't want to tamper with it.

Theatre is liberating because it only works if it's truthful, That's what it requires. That's not true of film: the camera does lie.

I used to say that theatre was my favourite thing. But the more I do film, the more I appreciate it.

America is such a nation of suppressed emotion, and when you arrive in L.A., you can smell the fear. It's the most alien country I've ever been to.

Every time, at any point of my life, I think now is always the best age to be.

What really matters to me is what my peers think.

I've become more confident as I have got older. I care less what others think.