Maxine Peake

“Generally, I am losing faith in telly, as we do have good dramas but not as many as there should be.”

“Nobody's impressed back home. All my friends were going, 'Oh right, so you're doing a play up in Leeds? Another depressing one is it? Do you mind if we don't bother coming?' I love that.”

“As I've got older, I've got slightly more fussy. You've got less time; you need to use it wisely.”

“You want to go to your deathbed saying, 'I didn't sell out.' But it's a tough business to keep to what you believe in and get through and do well.”

“I love 'Splash!' and 'Take Me Out.' Not that I'd ever do 'Splash!' It's the parading on British TV in a swimming costume I couldn't handle.”

“Every job still feels like the first time.”

“I reckoned my accent and class would count against me; I didn't see actresses as being working-class.”

“I don't have massive ambitions to be anywhere other than in this country doing good work.”

“There aren't that many great female roles in Shakespeare - none that I'd be desperate to play.”

“When I'm going to work, I often stop and wonder how I've got here. I don't mean literally, but just thinking back to when I first had the idea of being an actress, it seemed so unreal, so unlikely. People like me just didn't become actresses. Every new job I get comes as shock. It's almost as if I'm waiting to be found out.”

“I used to think the store detective had followed me all the way home and would knock on the door and go, 'Hello, is this your daughter? She's got three blue lipsticks and a moisturiser from Boots in her bag.' We just used to nick crap. Not even stuff we wanted.”

“For me, politics is about passion. It doesn't matter what you know; it's your actions that count. I meet people who say they're socialists, and that's not what they carry out in their everyday life.”

“It's great having time to just sit back and work through things in my mind. It helps put life into perspective.”

“Unfortunately, at the end of the day, when you watch yourself on the screen, you are always you.”

“I'm very independent, probably quite selfish, and like being able to disappear at the drop of a hat without having to explain myself - most men would find that a pain, wouldn't they?”

“The 'Bolton News' is the best place for online comments. They say I'm an absolute idiot and a communist anarchist. I was never an anarchist; I was a communist!”

“I get easily distracted and become a bit of a giddy giggler. I'm not good at taking myself seriously, and laughing at myself helps ease the pressure.”

“I actually used to compete at show-jumping when I was a young'un.”

“It's interesting when people say, 'You always play strong women,' because as far as I'm concerned, women are strong. I think that's what women are. We have got that vulnerability, but we have got that strength. We are survivors.”

“I think, as a woman, you've got to make so many sacrifices.”