Maggie Smith

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.

I fear that I won't work in the theatre again. I'm sad about that. But I won't retire.

There's nothing simpler than avoiding people you don't like. Avoiding one's friends, that's the real test.

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.

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?

When I started acting almost 50 years ago, it wasn't about fame. It was about acting.

Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.

I wanted to be a serious actress, but of course that didn't really happen.

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.

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 a difference between solitude and loneliness.

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

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

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.

When you get into the granny era, you're lucky to get anything.

I do love comedy, and when it's a comedy moment and you can make people laugh, of course it is wonderful.

People say it gets better but it doesn't. It just gets different, that's all.

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.

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.

Old people are scary. And I have to face it. I am old and I am scary.

Chris and Toby are far too sane to be upset any more.

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.

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.

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 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.

Listen, I must be 110 by now. Granny is going to kick the bucket at some point.

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