It makes me upset, if not angry, when people assume that there can be no morality without a religious framework. If there's a moral framework without all that religious stuff, it's more valuable.

I think all good writing is a struggle. To write as well as you feel you can has to be a struggle, almost by definition, because you could always improve.

Listening to my regular favourites - Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and so on - I always feel, quite misguidedly, that nothing can be too bad if such beauty and brilliance exists in the world.

An actor's job is about putting across the author's intention; I don't think of myself on the same level as a creator.

I don't agree with the whole 'my mother's my friend' approach, because you're their mum and there has to be a difference between the generations.

Of all the things I do, acting is the thing that grabs most, but there's another level on which it strikes me as being a little silly. In the end you're dressing up and deciding to be somebody.

The rehearsal time is almost my favourite part of being an actress, particularly if you're working on a play that hasn't been done before.