A biography for Helen McCroryhasn’t been written yet.
“Actually, I'm looking forward to being 50. Because to me, that's when a woman is at the pinnacle of her femininity and her womanhood.”
“I really love my food. My favourite thing is artichokes. I am not so much interested in desserts or chocolate, though. I also like to cook with my husband Damian.”
“You can be moved by a performance on set, but when you see it on screen, it does nothing. Yet there will be someone you simply didn't notice on set that on screen: bam!”
“I was lucky to learn early in life that you need money for food and shelter, but there's no ambition in having money in the bank for the sake of it!”
“There are a lot of little lessons that can be taught around the home without sitting a child down and boring them to death with your philosophy of life!”
“As I've got older, I feel more confident in my body, so wouldn't want to tamper with it.”
“I had a great start in television; the first thing I did was an episode of 'Performance' called 'The Entertainer' with Michael Gambon playing Archie Rice.”
“I can sleep anywhere! I can come off stage during the interval of a play, lie down for four minutes then wake up feeling better.”
“What I find most interesting about acting is transforming myself.”
“When I was 14, I told my mother I intended to be in the House of Commons in the morning, in court in the afternoon and on stage in the evening. She realised then a fantasist had been born.”
“I love theatre because it's just me and the audience. It's the litmus test in acting, to be able to sustain a performance over one, two or three hours.”
“In the area we live, there's a large show of children who run from one house to another house to another house. That's lovely because it means all the children play together, and all the adults get to sit around and have coffees and read the papers or go to the park.”
“Literature is reflecting what is happening in life. More and more women are having relationships with younger men. It's partly that women are not losing their figures now.”
“I've become more confident as I have got older. I care less what others think.”
“People are not considerate of others. They tend not to consider themselves as all living together, but see themselves only as individuals.”
“People who are exceptionally intelligent are often lonely because there are few people as intelligent as them. I have two little children, and everyone says: 'I hope they're doing well in school. I hope they're bright.' And I think: 'Why would anyone want their children to be the brightest?' Academia is a lonely world.”
“If you're constantly frightened of being unhappy, how bloody exhausting must that be?”
“The only time I ever spend alone is when I am working or when my husband is away filming. I put the kids to bed and have an hour and a half in the evening for myself.”
“I listen to Radio 4 all the time. I didn't go to university, so that's my further education.”
“What really matters to me is what my peers think.”