Maggie Smith
I fear that I won't work in the theatre again. I'm sad about that. But I won't retire.Collection: Sad
Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.
I like the ephemeral thing about theatre, every performance is like a ghost - it's there and then it's gone.
There's a difference between solitude and loneliness.
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.
There is a kind of invisible thread between the actor and the audience, and when it's there it's stunning, and there is nothing to match that.
I had been feeling a little rum. I didn't think it was anything serious because years ago I felt a lump and it was benign. I assumed this would be too. It kind of takes the wind out of your sails, and I don't know what the future holds, if anything.
There's this wonderful first assistant and he'll be saying, 'Now Harry goes down among the dragons.' You have to hold yourself together. Because if you lose it for a second then you're sunk.
Chris and Toby are far too sane to be upset any more.
I like being outside and working with the elements. The elemental aspects of it. The physicality of it.
I know there is something out there, and like most people, I tend to believe in it more when things go bad. But I'm not like Shirley MacLaine, who probably believes we were past lovers in another life.
People say it gets better but it doesn't. It just gets different, that's all.
I said 'It can't go on' and he said 'No, it can't.' Honestly, I don't think I could have mattered less to him by then. But by then, nothing mattered to him.
The performances you have in your head are always much better than the performances on stage.
The last couple of years have been a write-off, though I'm beginning to feel like a person now. My energy is coming back.
My career is chequered. Then I think I got pigeon-holed in humour; Shakespeare is not my thing.
The chemotherapy was very peculiar, something that makes you feel much worse than the cancer itself, a very nasty thing. I used to go to treatment on my own, and nearly everybody else was with somebody. I wouldn't have liked that. Why would you want to make anybody sit in those places?
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.
When you get into the granny era, you're lucky to get anything.
I longed to be bright and most certainly never was. I was rather hopeless, I suspect.
I believe that I am past my prime. I had reckoned on my prime lasting till I was at least fifty.
The thing is, often press people ask questions that are so personal that even your nearest and dearest wouldn't ask them.
Listen, I must be 110 by now. Granny is going to kick the bucket at some point.
It seems to me there is a change in what audiences want to see. I can only hope that's correct, because there's an awful lot of people of my age around now and we outnumber the others.
People think of you differently if you've been in their homes. They think they own you because they watched you while they were eating dinner, or they can turn you up or down, or even freeze you.
I know there is something out there and like most people, I tend to believe in it more when things go bad.
I don't think films about elderly people have been made very much.
I have many good friends, but I tend to keep to myself anyway. It's odd, doing things and having no one to share them with.
Old people are scary. And I have to face it. I am old and I am scary.
I wanted to be a serious actress, but of course that didn't really happen.
Some people say you have to fight cancer. But it was fighting me. The cure was worse than the disease, and it left me totally exhausted and depressed. I just hid myself away in my daughter-in-law's flat.
I loved Robert Altman, so gentle yet naughty! And Julian Fellowes writes so beautifully.
I've been playing old parts forever. I play 93 quite often. When you've done it more than once, you take the hint. I think it's a great burden if you're one of those fantastic stars who've always been beautiful; then I think it's hard.
When I started acting almost 50 years ago, it wasn't about fame. It was about acting.
An actor is somebody who communicates someone else's words and emotions to an audience. It's not me. It's what writers want me to be.
If you're lucky, I think you know what you want to do with your life. I think that's a greater gift that any of the gifts you might have when you do know, if you know what I mean. It must be awful to not know what to do.
I think lots of actors are very nervous and shy. I know lots of them who are, and some who aren't of course.
I do love comedy, and when it's a comedy moment and you can make people laugh, of course it is wonderful.
We can't escape the shadow, so the best thing we can do is notice the light and be open to it.Collection: Shadow
Don't be defeatist, dear, it's very middle class.Collection: Class
Which is strange - I've always thought of myself as someone who writes out of difficulty. And I did do that, but I came out on the side of light more often than not.Collection: Writing
Theres a difference between solitude and lonelinessCollection: Loneliness
I don't think films about elderly people have been made very much. I think of Cocoon and Driving Miss Daisy. But they always seem to be fairly successful, so it's a bit baffling as to why everybody has to be treated as if they were five-years-old.Collection: Successful
One went to school, one wanted to act, one started to act, and one's still acting.Collection: School
Little girls, I am in the business of putting old heads on young shoulders, and all my pupils are the crème de la crème. Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life.Collection: Girl
I feel now like a hinge between generations, which is strange. It just happened recently. I think it's because my daughter is so much like me at her age. I feel like I'm reliving my own mother's experience of raising me.Collection: Daughter
Try not to cry too much because it can be pretty heart-breaking and pretty hard.Collection: Heart
It's easy to get bogged down in bad news.Collection: Easy
I had a very good English teacher who said to me that she thought I ought to do it. She - I don't know, she saw something thank goodness because I think if it hadn't been encouraged by somebody that serious, I'm not sure what would've happened to me.Collection: Teacher
I am just surprised to be doing anything at my age actually. When you think of where I am now and where I've come from, I am very pleased and very grateful to be standing up and delivering Julian's great lines.Collection: Grateful