If you are an actress in L.A., on your 40th birthday they should just hand you the keys to the lunatic asylum.

I love the theatre and I love working in the theatre but I'm a big cinefile and I love the movies. I also do scribble but to limited success! I think I find being in a room on my own quite hard, which I think a lot of actors do because what we do is so inter-active. It's a very supportive profession... despite its reputation for being highly competitive it's actually one of the most collaborative professions you can do in the arts because you're always working in a team.

I've worked with actors who tell everyone what to do in the scene - that makes me go pretty atomic.

When you talk to women who were working as print journalists or in broadcasting in the '50s, and then you talk to women who were working in the late '60s, there's an enormous difference. There had already been a huge transition. Then, of course, you get well into the '70s and there were women with children working.

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.

I can only do something that my sister or my daughter, if I have one, could watch and feel positive about.

I get quite disappointed that we're still telling stories that I think are problematic in terms of what they're saying about women.