I am just surprised to be doing anything at my age actually. When you think of where I am now and where I've come from, I am very pleased and very grateful to be standing up and delivering Julian's great lines.

The performances you have in your head are always much better than the performances on stage.

There were male colleges, and there were very few female colleges.

The chemotherapy was very peculiar, something that makes you feel much worse than the cancer itself, a very nasty thing. I used to go to treatment on my own, and nearly everybody else was with somebody. I wouldn't have liked that. Why would you want to make anybody sit in those places?

Which is strange - I've always thought of myself as someone who writes out of difficulty. And I did do that, but I came out on the side of light more often than not.

I believe that I am past my prime. I had reckoned on my prime lasting till I was at least fifty.

When you get into the granny era, you're lucky to get anything.