I've been working every year since I started acting, and I got many awards before I won the Oscar for 'The Queen.'

Women have got to stop being polite. If I ever had children, which I don't, the first thing I'd teach a girl of mine is the words 'f - off.'

Being powerful is so much more interesting than being beautiful.

You write your life story by the choices you make.

It has nothing to do with clothing or makeup. Just put your shoulders back and chin up, and face the world with pride.

Actors are rogues and vagabonds. Or they ought to be.

When you're 16, 30 seems ancient. When you're 30, 45 seems ancient. When you're 45, 60 seems ancient. When you're 60, nothing seems ancient.

I don't think it's good to try and change anyone. The trick and the mystery - of relationships and life in general - is to learn to live with the bits you don't like.

Parkinson's is a slow but inevitable process. It's hard living with it on a daily basis. The difficulty facing people with it is that they never quite know 'Can I or can't I do this today?'

I don't like the word 'strong,' because a strong character is never an interesting character. A character is made interesting by their vulnerabilities and their weaknesses.

Where you grew up becomes a big part of who you are for the rest of your life. You can't run away from that. Well, sometimes the running away from it is what makes you who you are.

There are no moral obligations in the game of empire.

Toads are to dragons what carrots are to unicorns.

The artist realizes himself in his work

You are given the potential to excel, whether you do or not is entirely up to you.

I'm really open to everything.

You've got to dance like nobody's watching, and love like it's never going to hurt.

Hey! Sorry, lady, but nobody's staking anybody at this party! I hung a disco ball for this.

Is this a proposal? I'm married now, you know.

There is a sort of mystery to kitsch. When did it begin? If it is just simply another name for faking emotions, it ought to have been a permanent part of the human condition.

How I have walked... day after day, and all alone, to see if there was not something among the old things which was new!