I felt quite a responsibility when I played Elizabeth I but nobody here remembers her! And then I felt a responsibility when I played Queen Victoria but not many people remember her.

I think you should take your job seriously, but not yourself - that is the best combination.

It takes courage to recognize the real as opposed to the convenient.

I think you can teach people a technique - you can teach them how to use their voices, how to breathe properly, how to move their limbs a certain way. But to actually explain how one performs comedy or drama or tragedy isn't the same as the movements one makes.

I don't really want to retire. I intend to go on working as long as I can because I still have a huge amount of energy.

I'd rather do a part because I want to, not because great things are expected of me.

Most things don't work out as expected, but what happens instead often turns out to be the good stuff.