Actress

I often wrangle with myself as an actor, and wrestle with the process. In striving for authenticity I often have the feeling I am falling short.

There's still a massive inequality between the genders. If you look at the trajectory of a male actor's career, there's no hesitation or hiatus. But women after the age of 35 to 40 are rarely placed in the centre of the story.

I'm hardly Hollywood material - they're interested in youth and perfection and I lay no claims to either. It's not a place that's particularly interested in talent.

I never have time to myself; it's the one thing about my life I would probably hope to change.

If I could have any artist's work on my sitting room wall it would probably be by Van Gogh or Picasso.

I wouldn't even begin to presume that the talent of an able actor is anything like the talents of a prodigious musician.

I sometimes think that theatre is a torture.

I have a wardrobe full of expensive clothes, but wear the same two T-shirts. I've never found a look.

Sometimes I think it'd be fun to do a completely different job for a while. You've got one life and you do the same job for the whole of it, and you think - was that a good use of a life?

It is intensely frustrating. The longer you live, the more interesting life gets, and yet many of the parts involve carrying trays and putting lamb chops down in front of the leading man.

I grew up all over the world. My father was in the army and was posted to a new place every two and a half years. I have no geographical roots.

In our own, theatre can be the place where we come together, reaching with and through stories, to who we are and to who we can be.

I wanted to be the conduit for somebody else's experiences, filtered through me, and passed on to other people. Which is the job description, really.

I do understand that onstage there are times when you think, 'I could not be more alive than I am at this moment. I can't do most things in life. This is what I'm for.'

I'd rather be useful than rich. It's more essential to feel you're doing something that's worth doing, rather than making a lot of money.

Cruelty to children is the thing I can least bear in the world.

I have quite a robust relationship with regret. You simply don't know what the alternative would have been.

Everything contains its antithesis.

I hope to have more time to think, to look at the sky, dealing with less crisis management, to learn another language, to travel.

I often don't feel like the person I look like.