As actors, we're always asked to portray and react to these extreme circumstances, otherwise it's not interesting. They are agonizing things to think about.

People accuse me of being Methody, but I'm not at all. The one thing I don't want people to see is me. I don't want them to be able to recognize my faults and failures and qualities, and I won't use those things to spark off emotions or to illustrate.

Most films seem to be about a man and a women falling in love at some point and once you pass forty-five, it's almost disgusting to fall in love.

People are always saying, English, English, English rose, and I just feel so completely different.

I never go straight to the point if I can go the most difficult way. Why be simple when you can be complicated?

I think I'm inspired mostly by other artists that aren't actors, like writers or singers or artists, for being so brave.

The parts I've been most successful in are the ones I've desperately, desperately wanted.

I'm not at all fed up with British films, but I am fed up with playing upper-class people.

I mean, if you're being directed very precisely by somebody who has admiration and who's really smart, it's great. If you're being told what to do by a nincompoop - and luckily that hasn't happened very often - it can be very frustrating.

Making films can be absolutely fantastic, but it can also be incredibly dull. You spend the whole day sitting by yourself in your trailer and then you get called to deliver one sentence - then you're told to come back and do it again at 5:30 the following morning.

Seeing The English Patient is wonderfully draining, but imagine acting in it for six months.

I find it difficult to explain, but I'm quite ashamed of being an actress.

If you make a film about a pig farmer in Wales and you are a huge hit as the pig farmer's wife, the next thing is you'll be asked to do a film about a sheep farmer in Scotland.

Men don't fall in love with me - only young ones.

I have a feeling I will work for a long, long time. I like it a lot... and I don't know. I just have a feeling that I'm going to be one of those people who go on for ever.

I tend to do things that I'm very frightened of. That's what I do.

I don't want to have to be pretty. I don't want to have to be adorable.

I just don't see very many films. Because I make them.

I never raise my voice!

Boarding school is a wicked thing.

Having a leading man who is actually prettier than you are is quite upsetting.

I can't get into all that physical stuff of having to have flawless skin... Sometimes you see people and it looks like someone's got an eraser and made their face a little blurry - their traits seem to go out of focus.

I'm very good at forgetting people.

French culture takes ageing very seriously. There's much less ageism than in Anglo-Saxon countries.