Leave three Englishmen in a room and they will invent a rule that prevents a fourth joining them.

When people are feeling insecure about their jobs and there are cuts to be made, it's hard to put up an argument that the film industry needs funding.

Lust, that state commonly known as 'being in love,' is a kind of madness. It is a distortion of reality so remarkable that it should, by rights, enable most of us to understand the other forms of lunacy with the sympathy of fellow-sufferers. But, paradoxically, mad and suffering as one is, and the heat of the flame, few of us are glad as we feel that passion slip away No, while most people have been at their unhappiest when in love, it is nevertheless the state the human being yearns for above all.

If you're supposed to be a 'personality,' then you might as well have a personality.

Plenty of friendships are sustainable through dinners and lunches, but will not stand a week away. So be careful with whom you go on holiday.

I think Americans are wonderful film actors - the best in the world - but they are a very contemporary race and they look forward all the time.

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