Jane Austen was an extraordinary woman; to actually be able to survive as a novelist in those days - unmarried - was just unheard of.

Stage is the most exciting. Film is lovely, because it's like a family.

I wanted above all else not to be like my mum.

I'm massively talented, and very, very beautiful in person; the public don't really realise that.

Everyone comes up to me saying, 'Cooee, Julie! Hello!' as if I know them. Of course I don't bloody know them. Am I flummoxed by it? Sometimes. I think, 'Ooh, love, go easy.' For a time, I did feel this pressure that I had to be funny, but it passes.

Some people have a terrible stretch between family and work. It is a difficult thing to achieve.

I never wanted to become an actress because I'd read great literature or seen great Shakespeare. It was more just wanting to understand what the people were really like, why they said all the strange things they did.