In today's politics, it would be good to have politicians who are more upfront about what they felt and actually not trying to bend with every breeze….

I never was a great Thatcher fan, and it wasn't a sad day in my life when she resigned..

People smile at me as if they know me. I just smile back. They probably might know me..

A make-up artist I know polished her Oscar and it lost its lustre. But if you don't polish it, it doesn't tarnish..

When you research someone, you actually get beyond your own preconceptions and become aware of the human being other than the image. You become empat….

Sweet Jesus, war does terrible things to people..

We've all got a black book of missed opportunities..

I do always like to do things I haven't done before, so I'm always looking out for things in a different genre, or a different sort of character..

The films I enjoy seeing are those that reveal lives I was unaware of... in different cultures or whatever..

In fact I'd like to go back and live in Shakespeare's London..

Oh, I think I've been entirely selfish with my career. I've done what I wanted to do, and not put myself out for anyone else particularly..

To do a blockbuster that isn't stressful is a delight..

I haven't got a writer's discipline..

In Hollywood films everything is tidied up at the end with clean lines and clean character definitions. It's sort of unsatisfying..

I see myself as a small 'l' liberal, but not coalition liberal, necessarily..

You can't be angsty all day or else it becomes a sort of pale angst..

We seem to have reached the age where life stops giving us things and starts taking them away..

Other people have a much better idea of what I might do than I..

It's fatal to talk about acting. It sounds faintly ridiculous if you start analysing it..

I think we all have a selfish gene which rises to the top, sometimes. But then we're also all capable of a sudden magnanimity..

I'm not that comfortable with actors receiving honours, partly because I think they ought to go to those who really help others..