We can't escape the shadow, so the best thing we can do is notice the light and be open to it.

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.

I said 'It can't go on' and he said 'No, it can't.' Honestly, I don't think I could have mattered less to him by then. But by then, nothing mattered to him.

I think there's always great tension because there never seems to be enough - there is always pressure. There's always pressure because there isn't enough time. There's never enough time for a movie, it seems to me. Never.

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.

People say it gets better but it doesn't. It just gets different, that's all.

I'm so moved to hear Celia Johnson again, so lovely.