Gemma Jones

“All the Shakespeare parts are for young women, mostly.”

“I think it is very natural to want to be partnered, but you never know. you read about mature love affairs in the press, and it gives you hope. You think: 'Well, it's not impossible.'”

“Walking is my hobby, and I'm lucky that I live right on the edge of Hampstead Heath.”

“I don't colour my hair, and I look like the back end of a bus, so I get asked to play old people.”

“I do enjoy filming, but I do consider myself still to be a bit of a novice, and I learn a bit every time I do a film job, and I am very admiring of film actors.”

“Young women are still looking for a prince on a white charger to come over the hill or for Mr. Rochester to appear. We all pretend we're right-on feminists, but underneath that, there's still the bedrock of romance.”

“My mother had Alzheimer's, and it's a desperately, desperately cruel thing to witness.”

“As you get older, your idiosyncrasies become sort of exaggerated. So you are who you have always been, only more so.”

“Rather nostalgically, I sometimes think I could still play Juliet. Inside, I'm still an incorrigible romantic.”

“I'm lucky because I have never been pigeonholed and the roles have kept on coming.”

“Even if your parents don't have Alzheimer's or aren't in a wheelchair, your parents get old - if you're lucky to have parents who live for a long time. It's a challenge, and it's difficult and lovely and touching and awful and ghastly and real.”