I always considered myself very successful even before the success of Secrets and Lies.

I hate that people think going to the theatre is a special occasion. I wish people would treat it as normally as going to the cinema.

I love silence.

Being a secretary was considered a very good job in those days.

I've made six films since I made Secrets and Lies but I still live in London and I'd love to do theater.

People say to me that I can't be nervous because I've had such a wealth of experience, but I tell them that I have never done this particular part before.

I've never done a big studio film, I've only ever done little ones.

I knew Secrets and Lies was a great film, but I didn't expect it to get the attention it did because none of his other films had and I thought they were just as good.

Maybe wanting to retire is my ambition.

Anything where people have to work together makes me cry.

I've done a lot of costume drama and theatre - the National Theatre and In fact, most of my work at the theatre, at the National Theatre anyway, was period.

Everyone the world over talks about British actors and British talent and I think that's because we were trained - until now - in theatre.

I always considered myself very successful even before the success of Secrets and Lies.

I think behind closed doors people behave differently no matter what period we're looking at, because people have to stand up straight in public but can slouch behind closed doors - can you imagine wearing those corsets?

I always think 12 times before saying anything.

It's a real leveller, you know, to do theatre at least once every two years.

In fact at home I sometimes like to be quiet and hear the sounds of the world outside.

When I left drama school, there were dozens of rep theatres you could apply to where you got a good training.

Before every performance, I think I am about to keel over.

It's the same as any role and I find that you can't lump characters together; because they all have different life experiences, different reasons for being the way they are.

I think people often confuse success with fame and stardom.

The strange thing is that since I've been offered lots of films I think that maybe they think that I've sold out to Hollywood. Which is not the case if anybody's listening.

Even if I hadn't have been nominated for an Oscar, to have won the Golden Glove was just fantastic.

The academy awards in England; it's a classy affair as well.

I like the enthusiasm but not the insincerity of Los Angeles.

Truth lies within a little and certain compass, but error is immense.

To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves - there lies the great, singular power of self-respect.

Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

The real peril of war lies not in military defeat. It lies in war itself, whether we win or lose.

All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.

Seeking to forget makes exile all the longer; the secret of redemption lies in remembrance.

Because of the lack of education on AIDS, discrimination, fear, panic, and lies surrounded me.

Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two.

The English are polite by telling lies. The Americans are polite by telling the truth.

The great danger for family life, in the midst of any society whose idols are pleasure, comfort and independence, lies in the fact that people close their hearts and become selfish.

Americans detest all lies except lies spoken in public or printed lies.

The task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility and evil with activity.

The worlds I paint leave a lot to engage the imagination by hinting at what lies beyond the four edges of the painting. I think getting beyond the four edges of an opportunity or challenge is one of the basic skills you need in business.

The road to perseverance lies by doubt.

The power of a book lies in its power to turn a solitary act into a shared vision. As long as we have books, we are not alone.

I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.

Heaven lies about us in our infancy and the world begins lying about us pretty soon afterward.

The secret of a person's nature lies in their religion and what they really believes about the world and their place in it.

While I recognize the necessity for a basis of observed reality... true art lies in a reality that is felt.

For me the greatest beauty always lies in the greatest clarity.

Remember, beneath every cynic there lies a romantic, and probably an injured one.

The strength of criticism lies in the weakness of the thing criticized.

Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.

The way of a man's heart will be foreshadowed by what goodness lies in him - coming from above, and from around; but a way foreshadowed is not a way made.