I had been feeling a little rum. I didn't think it was anything serious because years ago I felt a lump and it was benign. I assumed this would be too. It kind of takes the wind out of your sails, and I don't know what the future holds, if anything.

It's easy to get bogged down in bad news.

A lot of writing about being a mother is not so much writing about the kids themselves. They become placeholders for the shift that happens when you're suddenly in charge of other people.

I'm hopeless - all I know is that time is going past so fast.

I'm far, far, far from that. But of course, that's one of the joys of acting is that you can move up in the world, even if - you know, in the characters that you're playing, even if you don't.

I'd done "Gosford Park," a film that Julian Fellowes had written that Robert Altman directed.

I like the ephemeral thing about theatre, every performance is like a ghost - it's there and then it's gone.