Romola Garai

“As a kid, I really loved 'Jane Eyre,' I used to fantasise that the past was so much better and my lifetime was crap.”

“I try not to live in the future too much; that can make you crazy as an actor. There are so many people who are obsessed about their career path, like it's something which you can control, which fundamentally you can't.”

“If you are an actress in L.A., on your 40th birthday they should just hand you the keys to the lunatic asylum.”

“My main ambitions, really, are in the theatre.”

“I cheated at the Model United Nations when I was 13 and had to get up and apologise in front of the whole conference.”

“I would like to know that I was still going to be employed as a woman well into my 60s. In acting terms, a career that spans a lifetime is a very hard thing to achieve, particularly as a woman.”

“I'm a feminist. God, yes! A bra-burning, building-burning feminist.”

“There are American directors I'd really like to work with, but I don't know how much I want to be sitting in my house, doing the rounds of meetings with CEOs. You have to be really hardworking to do all that, and I'm lazy.”

“I would argue that something dark is lurking between the sexes, and that it is seeping out into cinema.”

“In a way, I'd rather go into an interview and be disliked, and have unpleasant things written about me, than to have a wonderful, glowing article written that is in no way a reflection of who I am.”

“The advent of digitally enhancing images - and the fact that actresses weren't protesting against that - created an environment where big corporations felt like they had total ownership over the bodies of actresses.”

“Someone like David Tennant is able to embrace people's love for 'Doctor Who' in a totally positive way. I have huge admiration for people who are able to do that.”

“I think one of the reasons I've done so much period work is because I feel so depressed by how society chooses to represent women in contemporary work.”

“I'm fundamentally a busy person; I spend my time doing useful things and profoundly useless things!”

“Normally, when you're working on something, there are other characters that you have alliances with, and you have unified goals with some characters.”

“There are still journalists who risk their lives in situations of conflict, versus those who sit behind a desk at 'News of the World' to report on whether someone is going out with somebody or not.”

“I get nonplussed by all the Fifties retro-revival aesthetic. Would we really want to be in our pinnies in our kitchen weeping? I find the kitchen, housewifey aesthetic repugnant.”

“If you have the opportunity as an actor to control your career in any way, then you've won the jackpot.”

“Female ambition is such a complicated thing to play because it is an aggressive quality, and people respond very badly to women exhibiting any kind of aggression.”

“I love '30 Rock.' Absolutely love it. It's a game-changing show.”