Acting is a strange job because your control is very limited.

Motherhood so often comes in conflict with women's capacity to express and live their own lives.

You don't have to conform to a very specific aesthetic today, whereas 1950s women definitely had to.

I get grumpy about the innate conservatism of our tastes; I love bold theatre, and I get annoyed when a heritage piece is really successful.

A passion for any novel, and any character, can crystallise your ideas when you really need to be as open as possible as a performer.

I'd actually really love to review books and films and plays, but you can't be an artist and a critic. I would love it if I could.

I feel that it's important to fail now and again. For instance, if I go for a job and I don't get it, that makes me not a better person, but more balanced, more aware of what life is really like.