Judi Dench

“It's incredibly moving to hear some of our greatest actors performing Shakespeare.”

“Sometimes nudity is gratuitous. We just live in a society where everything goes.”

“I wanted to be a set designer when I was young.”

“The more I do, the more frightened I get. But that is essential. Otherwise why would I go on doing it?”

“I don't think anybody can be told how to act. I think you can give advice. But you have to find your own way through it.”

“Some things you know about, you know what the ingredients are - maybe not all of them. But it's up to you to put in the amount. It's up to the director to nag you until you get it right.”

“I think you should take your job seriously, but not yourself - that is the best combination.”

“My husband was actually very keen that I would become a Bond girl.”

“In the theatre you can change things ever so slightly; it's an organic thing. Whereas in film you only have that chance on the day, and you have no control over it at all.”

“I just feel incredibly lucky to be employed when there are so many actors and actresses who are not employed. That's why, you know, I sometimes feel desperate, in case I'm not going to be cast again.”

“Michael died five years ago this January, and the first thing that really struck me about the script was the part about her peeling off from the funeral and just getting into a rowboat and having a real kind of cry where nobody was.”

“I would like to work with Jack Nicholson, before it's too late.”

“And then it was working with Bob Hoskins, who I had never worked with before - except radio. It was like being given a wonderful meal - full of the things you love most.”

“People think you know beforehand when you win an Oscar - I can assure you you don't.”

“I'd rather do a part because I want to, not because great things are expected of me.”

“I work out the other bits, too, but I need to know what I look like, very early on. And then it's like a template; I'll fill that person out. If I get that out of the way, then I'm all right.”

“It was good to learn so early. They're not going to be kind to you. You have to do it and get on, and then gulp down and get better.”

“I don't really want to retire. I intend to go on working as long as I can because I still have a huge amount of energy.”

“I've got what my ma had, macular degeneration, which you get when you get old.”

“I've figured out what to do so far, but it's always the next thing you come to where the man with the bucket of ice cold water is waiting - whoosh! in your face. That's why you work with directors who know what to tell you to do.”