Lesley Nicol

“The first meal my husband ever made me was a chicken curry. I have never tasted anything so delicious in my life.”

“People are always asking me for my favorite recipe, and I have to say, 'I don't really have one.'”

“The first time I ever got up on a stage, I did a comedy poem. I don't know how I got there in the first place because I was very, very shy.”

“I inherited my weight problem from my mum. She was always on diets. If there was a box of chocolates in the house, she'd eat half a chocolate, then put the other half back. She loved me, but she did encourage me to diet in my teens.”

“Coming eyeball to eyeball with a hummingbird on my terrace is as exciting to me as any celebrity I've met as a result of 'Downton Abbey.'”

“I wish I could play the piano. I started when I was four and finished when I was five. I got bored. I couldn't tell my left hand from my right back then!”

“People have preconceptions about women of a certain age.”

“For many years, I picked the wrong men, or they picked me. I think if you don't feel attractive or worth something as a woman, you attract men who don't really look after you. That's what happened to me, but I realise that those relationships were like a journey, helping me to learn something about myself.”

“I get invited to a lot more glamorous parties since I've been in 'Downton Abbey,' which has made me much more fashion conscious.”

“I know it sounds funny, but every time I have a disaster in the kitchen, it knocks my confidence level a little bit more, and I feel annoyed with myself that I can't do better.”

“I mean, I've done musicals, but it's not my best thing.”

“People I've never spoken to before come up to me and give me a hug.”

“I want to have a scene with Maggie Smith.”

“I sometimes wonder what it would have been like if I'd got 'Downton Abbey' when I was 22.”

“I was painfully shy as a child.”

“I always admire people who have passion.”

“I guess that is my favorite thing - to make people laugh and also to maybe engage them emotionally and touch them somehow in telling the story.”

“When you look back, I think things are as they are meant to be. Timing is very important.”

“I can do basics, but I'm not a proper cook. I can do a roast. I can stick a chicken in the oven with vegetables.”

“I'm not very good with conventional, prim-and-proper people who are well-behaved, grown-up.”