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

I don't want to give up acting - it's what I am.

I can talk myself so much into my part.

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

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'm too young at 50. I'm not grown up yet. There's part of everybody like that.

There is this idea that appealing to youth is the only way forward. But that is no longer the case. Youth is not everything. Now we have all the baby-boomers in their 60s, like me, who are actively engaged in life - we're not retiring, we're not just being put out to grass once we hit 60.