Geraldine James

“America television is terrifying. It's the best, but my God, it's the worst, isn't it?”

“When I left drama school I worked in children's theatre for six months, then went up to the Gateway to do my first ever rep job.”

“Friends become more important as you get older and give you a sense of where you are.”

“The good thing about buying things online is that you can send them back.”

“For some reason in England, the word 'Chekhovian' is associated with drifting about with a parasol, a lot of weeping, and drinking tea from a samovar. But it's about real people - it's about family relationships and the way people want to be recognised for who they are.”

“I don't believe anybody is just an evil cow.”

“I've become much fitter as I've got older, funnily enough.”

“As a woman, sadly, you go from the girl to the love interest to the wife to the mistress to the mother to the granny - and so the stereotype goes on.”

“They are brought up to be the providers, the tough guys at the top of the family. The attitude is: 'Don't make me feel better or I might cry - and wouldn't that be awful?'”

“In India, time is of a completely different nature. People there think 'So what?' about our compulsions. A cup of tea is only a cup of tea.”

“The secret to a happy marriage is friendship and laughter. There's no alternative.”

“I think I may have got the part in 'Dragon Tattoo' because of 'Little Britain.'”

“I'm not one of those actors who can complain that work's thinned out since I've got older.”

“David Fincher is an actor's director.”

“As a woman growing older I've gone through that process of suddenly realising I'm invisible in the world, having not been invisible when I was young.”

“I found out when I was very young that I could make people laugh. I think I was a dreadful showoff.”

“If you're asked constantly to do something extremely dull, you don't have to commit any imaginative power.”

“You have to take knocks as an actor, and my parents definitely gave me fight. I'm very driven, like my father, who was a very successful doctor.”

“We can't all play Marie Antoinette all of the time.”

“My fantasy was to have a home in the country with six children, all with different fathers. The fathers would come down occasionally and provide for us. I thought that was a marvellous solution - just me and all my kids.”