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

My own belief is that most people are trying to do their best. It doesn't mean they have no nasty side, or that they don't have a bad temper, or that they have never done anything they feel ashamed of. But fiction operates on people waking up trying to be horrible, and I don't think most people are trying to be horrible.

Harsh reality is always better than false hope.

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.

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

What does she do?" "She's a producer." Of course, in Los Angeles this doesn't mean much more than "she's a member of the human race.

I mean the truth is, I've always been interested in the whole setup of the old world.