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

I'm terrified of learning lines, and I've always been terrified that I won't learn them.

I'm a naturist at heart. I love being on beaches where everyone is naked. Ugly young people, beautiful old people, whatever. It's so unsexual and so liberating.

Flesh sells. People don't want to see pictures of churches. They want to see naked bodies.

English actors feel vaguely apologetic for being there at all. American actors know that the most important thing is to get one take out of fifty that is great, and they'll go to any length to get it. The English are used to working within consistently small, low-budget things and think, I mustn't waste their time.

You know, you have to allow life to play itself out, don't you? And one thing you learn is that it doesn't stop. It moves on.

I've always been battling against my sense of dignity and refinement. I was embarrassed by any bodily functions when I was younger. I could never even blow my nose.