Quotes

One went to school, one wanted to act, one started to act, and one's still acting.

"Jude is the most incredibly level person. Generous, understanding. All the things I'd have to work very hard at, Jude is like that all the time. I would love to be like that. And working with Jude you have to try to remember that you ought to be like that" [on her friend Judi Dench].

I love it, I'm privileged to do it and I don't know where I'd be without it. [on acting]

The performances you have in your head are always much better than the performances on stage.

"I still miss him so much it's ridiculous. People say it gets better but it doesn't. It just gets different, that's all. Even in my dream I kept saying to him, 'You are dead. You can't be here'" [on her second husband, Beverley Cross].

I like the ephemeral thing about theatre, every performance is like a ghost - it's there and then it's gone.

I longed to be bright and most certainly never was. I was rather hopeless, I suspect.

But there was an incredible nervousness about him. You couldn't do this, couldn't do that. Mustn't ride a bike, you'd be bound to fall off. Couldn't swim, you'd most certainly drown. [on her father]

I wanted to be a serious actress, but of course that didn't really happen. I did Desdemona [at the National, opposite Olivier] with great discomfort and was terrified all the time. But then everyone was terrified of Larry.

My career is chequered. Then I think I got pigeon-holed in humour; Shakespeare is not my thing.

I tend to head for what's amusing because a lot of things aren't happy. But usually you can find a funny side to practically anything.

[on roles] "When you get into the granny era, you're lucky to get anything."

It's true I don't tolerate fools, but then they don't tolerate me, so I am spiky. Maybe that's why I'm quite good at playing spiky elderly ladies.

I've won two Oscars and I still don't begin to understand film acting.

[on whether she will miss filming Harry Potter now that the series is completed] No, it was 10 years, and that's a lot.

Glenn Close isn't an actress - she's an address.

One kid once said to me, he said "Were you... were you really a cat?" And I heard myself say "Just pull yourself together."

[on Kenneth Williams] An enormous influence. I pinch from him all the time.

If I could attend Hogwarts as a student, I would be most excited to attend the potions class taught by Severus because it is the most exotic.