I feel the written word, poetry and literature is just one of the most beautiful things that human beings do. So we have to fight for it.

I don't throw a lot of parties. I find throwing parties a bit intimidating.

What you want is a comfortable environment that you feel you can invent in. Because film is such a lumbering, technical, huge, great Neanderthal thing, it's hard to create that little space of peace, and calm, and creativity, and ease. That's what you want the director to create for you, so that when you walk on the set, you forget all of that, and the fact that it's costing gazillions of dollars a second.

I certainly think that he [Alan Rickman] was a kind of actor who needed to grow into his maturity to realize the potential, the huge potential that he had.

I am so happy that I didn't have children. Well, you know, because I've had freedom.

When I'm choosing projects to be a part of it's always a combination of so many different things. The primary thing is the director. But a very important element is, is it different enough from anything else I've ever done, or what I've last done.

I've been working every year since I started acting, and I got many awards before I won the Oscar for 'The Queen.'