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

I went through bits of the 60s and thought myself a bit of a hippy.

As soon as I gave birth, it was as if you understand them. They become people, not kids. You start to identify with them. You see yourself in them.

I don't know if you can change things, but it's a drop in the ocean.

I keep seeing myself in my daughter, and I see my mother in me and in her. Bloody hell.

I was feeling very irritable. It was that difficult time of the month when the credit card statement arrives.

That's why I'm an actress - escaping into a world.