I've made great friends through acting. When I'm with Victoria Wood and Julie Walters, we have grand fun. We can make each other howl with laughter because we know each other so well.

A 'naughty pickle' is how I'd best describe myself. I think fun and laughter is the whole point of life.

Single by choice, just not my choice.

I would do nearly anything for a laugh, to tell the truth. And I'm a particular favourite with young men with earrings.

Anorexia taught me to love life and to realise that starving yourself to death is a bloody waste of time. It's awful and it hurts so many people around you. It's a terribly selfish thing to do.

My mother Diana was a true-blue aristocrat, descended from William the Conqueror and listed in 'Burke's Peerage.' My father David, from a poor Scottish family, was a doctor.

If I ever married, I know I would dread the daily sound of the key in the door and the casual expectancy of 'Hello! I'm home!

While other girls swooned over The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, I worshipped Rudolf Nureyev and Isadora Duncan.

I've had to spend an awful lot of my life trying to pretend I'm not posh. Although once I open my mouth, I rather let things out the bag.

I long for the day where we don't have to talk about our age as actresses.

Anorexia is an awful thing, but you get yourself into it, and only you can get yourself out of it.

Marxian Socialism and Bolshevism are two historical phenomena which have hardly a single common denominator.

If elected I shall be thankful; if not, it will be all the same.

The '80s was a really creative and brave period. Remember, it was a period of ultraconservatism, and so you needed brave people to push ahead like that.

Emotions are messengers that carry information. Spiritual growth depends upon receiving that information & using it.

Sometimes when a new piece of knowledge comes along you suddenly change your priorities and focus on something completely different instead.

No matter what you got, the blues is there

Oh, I'm ready. Are you ready? It doesn't matter if you're ready!!!

Time away from thinking about something is as valuable - perhaps even more so - than directly thinking about it.

No Palestinian, young or old, would be frightened by these Israeli tactics.

Once you accept the power of spine in the creative act, you will become much more efficient in your creativity. You will still get lost on occasion, but having a spine will anchor you.