I really enjoy singing, it's entirely different to acting because I'm just being myself.

If Shakespeare was around today I would ask him out to dinner. The only thing I don't like about him is the way he did his hair.

I think some period drama can be quite alienating, but 'Downton' isn't. This is going to sound quite, um, pretentious, but someone said that it's like a soap written by a poet.

Cooking can cure almost anything.

I come from a very working-class background, so my family would have been downstairs in the past, as opposed to upstairs. People are often quite surprised to hear that, that I'm not actually posh.

I think the first time I realised Downton Abbey was a hit was when I was sitting in a tea shop in New York and the couple next to me were talking about Downton Abbey, and then they recognised me.

I had dance training from a very young age, 3 or 4... It taught me how to present myself, about preparation and working in an ensemble, and its something that carries with me to this day.

I don't get recognized all the time, but it tends to happen more in America, and people are so lovely when they do.

I love discovering tiny streets.

I don't mind wearing a corset; it informs your posture, changes the way you move, you can't slouch.

I love cycling, but if I could find a way of building something above the streets for cyclists, that would be amazing. We need even more space.

This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it.

We will see every human beings as Christ and we will help Hindus to be better Hindus, Muslims to be better Muslims, and Christians to be better Christians"(Mother Teresa).

When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.

If you can get enough votes so that mine will make a majority, you can have it.

Your desires will very often be contradictory and so will your strengths. All of our contradictions make us whole.

I mean, if you're gonna purposely lose your mind, you want to get it back some day. Don't you? Okay, maybe not.

Luxury... corrupts at once rich and poor, the rich by possession and the poor by covetousness.

Your insecurities are what makes you different and who you are. If we all were the same, it'd be boring.

In its narrowest acceptation, order means obedience. A government is said to preserve order if it succeeds in getting itself obeyed.

All I do is convert liberals to conservatism. That's what I do, and that's why they don't like me.