“Anything that we can do to improve the lives of elderly people is welcome so far as I am concerned.”

“Because, you know, I can't work a bicycle pump.”

“Frankly, I never had any intense desire to go to India. I know that sounds a bit strange, but it just never was someplace I had a burning desire to visit.”

“I am so thrilled to be nominated for something I loved working on every single day.”

“I don't think anybody can be told how to act. I think you can give advice. But you have to find your own way through it.”

“I don't think that care homes are all rotten old places that ought to be shut down.”

“I just feel incredibly lucky to be employed when there are so many actors and actresses who are not employed. That's why, you know, I sometimes feel desperate, in case I'm not going to be cast again.”

“I love being part of a company, and telling a story.”

“I need to learn every day.”

“I think you should take your job seriously, but not yourself - that is the best combination.”

“I think you've got to have your feet planted firmly on the ground, especially in this business, and you must not believe things that are said or written about you, because everything gets out of proportion one way or the other.”

“I wanted to be a set designer when I was young.”

“I was in Yorkshire. We were a family of five and I used to be sent sometimes to get the rations for the week and I was easily able to carry them back. It was like one egg and a tiny bit of tea.”

“I would hate people to think bossy is all I can do.”

“It actually was a complete departure having a woman playing M. I didn't realize at the time that it would be so noticed.”

“It is not good to cross the bridge before you get to it.”

“I've always loved painting, although I never show anyone what I've done. Mainly because I don't do it well. But it's like a form of visual diary for me. A way of fixing things in my mind.”

“I've figured out what to do so far, but it's always the next thing you come to where the man with the bucket of ice cold water is waiting - whoosh! in your face. That's why you work with directors who know what to tell you to do.”

“Michael died five years ago this January, and the first thing that really struck me about the script was the part about her peeling off from the funeral and just getting into a rowboat and having a real kind of cry where nobody was.”

“My husband was actually very keen that I would become a Bond girl.”

“Seriously, though, I think I never ceased to be grateful of the fact that I am able to do a job that I really love - I never got over that.”

“Since Michael died I think I've worked constantly. Friends and colleagues are very sustaining. They're the people who get you through it... It's no good to be on your own.”

“Some things you know about, you know what the ingredients are - maybe not all of them. But it's up to you to put in the amount. It's up to the director to nag you until you get it right.”

“The Lord Chamberlin was censoring scripts when I first came into the theater.”

“There are very few things that surprise me.”

“Work certainly does help fill a void.”