British Quotes

People are fascinated by evil because it's mysterious and it doesn't seem to have a rationale behind it, and the second you say that Hannibal Lector was abducted as a child and he had to eat his sister or something like that, it becomes immediately mundane. The character becomes mundane.

My father was a Catholic, but my mother wasn't. She had to do that weird deal you do as a Catholic - they deign to sanction your marriage and you have to bring your children up as Catholics.

'Mad Men' is a hard act to follow. Unless you're called Elisabeth Moss, stuff like this only comes along once in your career.

It used to be that you could do these nuggets of a movie and it would attach itself in terms of credibility to your work and the style of work that you did, that people would be interested and curious about you and your work as an actor.

If you don't look like Rupert Graves or Hugh Grant, they'll have you playing the gardener.

I've done quite a lot of dying on shows and in movies. To have a good death scene though - come on, it's brilliant. I love a good death scene!

I've auditioned for normal characters. But I never get cast.

I wasn't aware of my dad being an actor when I was young. I remember there was an Australian children's entertainer on television called Ralph Harris and when I'd say my father was an actor, kids would say, you know, 'oh, is he Ralph Harris?' And I had to say no and then they would lose interest.

I was beginning to think I was typecast in everyone's mind out there as a serial killer. I played a serial killer in one movie, I was the ghost of a serial killer in another and in a third, a computer-generated serial killer. The stage looks pretty good after those roles.

I was 17, and all I wanted to do was to get away from England and the awful, boring boarding schools I'd been going to there. The last one was taught by monks, and I couldn't wait to get out.

I used to do lots of independent films and for a while I was very content living in New York City and doing independent movies and off-Broadway theater. I loved it, I had a really good time doing that, and I worked on a lot of projects that are very dear to my heart, both plays and films.

I thought if I went somewhere where I didn't know anybody and they didn't know me I could start all over again.

I think you always learn something in every character you play onstage, either personally or creatively.

I think at some point every actor has practiced their acceptance speech while they're having a shower. It's fun.

I remember thinking, 'I'll audition just once and if it doesn't work out I'll never think about it ever again.'

I really wanted to get out of England.

I never lost an argument and my parents assumed I would be a lawyer. They cast me in that role.

I keep mementos from everything I've done. I've got my cab driver's license from 'Happiness.' I've got a pair of glasses and a belt buckle from playing John Lennon. I've got a pair of sunglasses from playing Andy Warhol... It's all in a box in the garage.

Well, if you look at the programme that we're offering, I think that is a future which is fair for women as well as men. We're still heavily outnumbered - we're still four to one in parliament - but we are pioneers! We are forging a new path.

Well, I feel that everybody in the country knows me. I think people know who I am, and that I'm deputy leader of the Labour party, and that I'm out there talking about their big choice for the future.

There are many women with children under five who want to work and who lack affordable, high-quality child care.

It's hard to bring up your children on benefit. It's easier if you can do part- time work, or even full-time work, and actually have a better standard of living, and that's the direction in which we are going.

Is this the situation in the modern Conservative party? That women should be seen and not heard?

In a country where women regard themselves as equal, they are not prepared to see men running the show themselves.

I was aware that everybody said I was going to be a vast mega-flop, and that William Hague was just oh-so intelligent, and oh such a great parliamentarian, and therefore so different from me! So I thought, I must deprive them of the satisfaction of proving themselves right.

I think a balanced team of men and women makes better decisions. That's one of the reasons why I was prepared to run for deputy leader.

I know we will look back on this and think how odd it was we were championing the rights of lone mothers to bring up their children on benefit.

I don't agree with all-male leaderships. Men cannot be left to run things on their own. I think it's a thoroughly bad thing to have a men-only leadership.

Actually, I don't ever think there will be a men-only team of leadership in the Labour party again. People would look at it and say, 'What? Are there no women in the party to be part of the leadership? Do men want to do it all themselves?' It just won't happen again.

Britain will be honoured by historians more for the way she disposed of an empire than for the way in which she acquired it.