If there's one thing I don't look for in a maid, it's discretion. Except with my own secrets, of course.

In my defence I can only say that her past, too, like mine, like everyone's in fact, was a locked box. Occasionally we allow people a peep, but generally only at the top level. The darker streams of our memories we negotiate alone.

For most directors, the scriptwriter is about as welcome on set as a member of the Taliban.

What is a week-end? Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey.

My parents came from different backgrounds. My father's was grander than my mother's, so my mother had... to put up with the disapproval of my father's relations.

Vulgarity is no substitute for wit.

I love 'Sex and the City;' I think I've seen every episode.