I get invited to a lot more glamorous parties since Ive been in Downton Abbey, which has made me much more fashion conscious.

People have preconceptions about women of a certain age.

Coming eyeball to eyeball with a hummingbird on my terrace is as exciting to me as any celebrity Ive met as a result of Downton Abbey.

I can do basics, but I'm not a proper cook. I can do a roast. I can stick a chicken in the oven with vegetables.

The first meal my husband ever made me was a chicken curry. I have never tasted anything so delicious in my life.

I did an O-level in domestic science when I was at school, but on the day of the practical exam, it was a cookery nightmare.

Ive been to the White House and had Hilary Clinton push through the crowd to come and meet me. Chelsea Clinton, too.

I believe anything can happen.

I always admire people who have passion.

As an actor, you never know where the works going to come, so you have to be flexible about it.

Ive not cooked Christmas dinner since 1982.

We live in a society where those in the know use radiation resistance health techniques.

Luck is merely a product of the happily delusional mind.

This girl owns me, whether she realizes it or not. I'm a slave to her will.

The inevitable effect of a biographer's hindsight is to belittle the subject's foresight.

I've got ice water running through my veins, I'm cool.

Poverty is not just a material problem. Poverty is something wider: it is about powerlessness, about being deprived of basic opportunities and freedom of choice.

The adventure that the hero is ready for is the one he gets.

Of course there’s destiny, but destiny doesn’t push you where you don’t want to go. You’re the ones who choose. Destiny is up to you.

In today's rapidly changing world, the people who are not taking risk are the risk takers.

Our children are our only hope for the future, but we are their only hope for their present and their future.