A biography for Maureen Lipmanhasn’t been written yet.
“Oblivion would be my ideal - one ticket to oblivion, please.”
“Let's teach our daughters, and our sons I suppose: it is possible to say 'no' without rancour, without anger, without emotion.”
“I have a loathing of authoritarianism - and that I think possibly makes me a bit difficult.”
“There was a programme in the Channel 4 'Dispatches' series called 'Burma's Secret War' that chilled me to the marrow. This is about as uncivil as a civil war can be.”
“I am Taurean and so I'm very into security.”
“There is nobody I think who has brought up children in my profession who does not feel that they could have done better.”
“I'm scared of Alzheimer's. All my father's family have terrible memories.”
“Cancel culture, this cancelling, this punishment, it's everywhere. Punishment. An eye for an eye. 'You said that, therefore you must never work again.' Sooner or later, the cancellers will win.”
“I'd have to be stark raving mad to be a supporter of Boris Johnson. And I'm not.”
“My mother ran the home, but if we did anything naughty she would say 'Wait till your father gets home.'”
“Polanski was an abused child. And he flew too near to the sun too quickly.”
“I love La Mamounia in Marrakesh: it's a colonial-style hotel and is very gracious, with beautiful palm trees all around. I love the set-up of where you eat and sunbathe; it's very elegant and you don't need to leave the hotel other than for little trips to the sea. It's hedonistic but in a graceful way.”
“The movies had a huge impact on me. I loved going to the cinema, walking in at any point in the film and then waiting until it started again so you knew what on earth was going on.”
“I would like a fatter face with big bones and thick skin, please.”
“I was a Labour luvvie, with Blair. I wasn't really a party member.”
“On a Sunday night, in my perfect weekend, I'd go to my favourite watering hole.”
“I've learned a lot from my daughter because she is my best friend and I sort of admire her, but I tread gingerly with her.”
“I'm full of ideas and general crackling chemistry and I can read the 'score' of a comedy as though it's a musical score.”
“I always feel vaguely sordid after an evening in front of the TV, but when you're watching advance copies of movies in order to vote by email for the Bafta awards, you can actually excuse your shirking indolence on the grounds that your vote may turn out to be the casting one.”
“Members of the public always want to know how we learn our lines, as though there was some mystery to the process. There isn't. You just slog through it exactly as you did with the dates of the English kings, covering up your cues with a shopping list.”