An actor is somebody who communicates someone else's words and emotions to an audience. It's not me. It's what writers want me to be.

The drama school was in Oxford - and it's funny to think of it, but in those days when I started out the University was nearly all male. And they certainly weren't mixed.

People think of you differently if you've been in their homes. They think they own you because they watched you while they were eating dinner, or they can turn you up or down, or even freeze you.

There is a kind of invisible thread between the actor and the audience, and when it's there it's stunning, and there is nothing to match that.

My career is chequered. Then I think I got pigeon-holed in humour; Shakespeare is not my thing.

Sort of what you do in drama school when asked to play something way out of your reach. Anyway, we used to laugh a lot about that. I used to say I'm not going to act old, Penelope. I'll just be myself.

It's true I don't tolerate fools but then they don't tolerate me, so I am spiky. Maybe that's why I'm quite good at playing spiky elderly ladies.