There are people out there with three jobs and small children. Being an actor is a walk in the park compared to working as a cleaner overnight. I'm lucky I'm not plucking chickens.

I sometimes think it's like a weird elastic band. The more tragic your work is, the quicker you snap back. There's a catharsis in telling a miserable old tale; you get rid of demons.

There are some roles you just don't say 'no' to. Those compass points: you get them so rarely as an actress.

I don't look like Catherine Zeta-Jones, so I don't think Hollywood would be that interested in me, to be honest. I just want nice work.

As I get older, I want to draw on my experience to make roles better. I see that in the older women who inspire me - their experience makes them better.

Nothing is more diminishing than trying to control success or hold on to things.

People at a point of conflict are always the most interesting stories to tell.

You can't worry too much about profile; otherwise, you become a different kind of actor, and that's not the kind of actor I want to be.

You just grow up and learn to think instead of just feel.

When I started drama school, theatre was the main draw. I never had any movie star notions. Not that there were family ties to the theatre, either.

In theatre, there's the director, the writer, and below them the actor. In film, it's the actors who are most important. That goes against the grain for me.

You can eat alkaline foods until the cows come home, but if you're a miserable SOB, you're acidic.

The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest of life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning.

In this country, a smart leader is suspect. That's just the way it is. Even George Bush's father, who was a lot smarter than the son, had to sort of prove that he wasn't that bright.

Part of resilience is deciding to make yourself miserable over something that matters, or deciding to make yourself miserable over something that doesn't matter.

We must not stay as we are, doing always what was done last time; or we shall stick in the mud.

Being disguised under the disfigurement of an ugly crucifixion and death, the Christ upon the cross is paradoxically the clearest revelation of who God is.

So little time and so little to do.

We limit how much technology our kids use at home.

For a laggard in love, and a dastard in war, Was to wed the fair Ellen of Lochinvar.

Think of successful creative collaborations are dreams with deadlines.