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

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.

My grandmother lived with us for a short time while I was a child. Old people tend to be slightly more eccentric - they can behave the way they want.

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

I can understand why people get annoyed at being remembered for one thing, but a lot of actors aren't remembered for anything. I don't mind that.

I think comedy's something you can't learn. It's an instinct, which makes it rather elusive.

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