It was good to learn so early. They're not going to be kind to you. You have to do it and get on, and then gulp down and get better.

My husband was actually very keen that I would become a Bond girl.

I just feel incredibly lucky to be employed when there are so many actors and actresses who are not employed. That's why, you know, I sometimes feel desperate, in case I'm not going to be cast again.

The Lord Chamberlin was censoring scripts when I first came into the theater.

I work out the other bits, too, but I need to know what I look like, very early on. And then it's like a template; I'll fill that person out. If I get that out of the way, then I'm all right.

The difficulty with any sort of esteem is that more is expected of you.

I once said to someone when I was playing Lady Macbeth and they said: "That's tricky, emotionally, what do you do about murdering your husband's cousin?" And there are, of course, things that aren't in your personal repertoire that you have to somehow understand by reading or watching other things and listening to other people talk about them.