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

It's the gloomy things that need our help, if everything in the garden is sunny, why meddle?

A lot of actors find it impossible not to ask for the audience's sympathy. They have a need to twinkle.

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

If you are lucky, you have your moment. But it is never more than a moment. You have to enjoy it while it lasts.

I think I have a very detailed sense of observation. I am interested in the details of people's lives and what information these details give.

There are many nations that have perfected a particular room. You know, you have the French drawing-room, the Austrian ball room, the German dining room, and I think the library is a room the English get right.