Judi Dench

“I just feel incredibly lucky to be employed when there are so many actors and actresses who are not employed.  That’s why, you know, I sometimes feel desperate, in case I’m not going to be cast again.”

“In contrast, the control you have in a theatre is very attractive to me.”

“It’s incredibly moving to hear some of our greatest actors performing Shakespeare.”

“I don’t think anybody can be told how to act.  I think you can give advice.  But you have to find your own way through it.”

“I think you’ve got to have your feet planted firmly on the ground, especially in this business, and you must not believe things that are said or written about you, because everything gets out of proportion one way or the other.”

“Michael died five years ago this January, and the first thing that really struck me about the script was the part about her peeling off from the funeral and just getting into a rowboat and having a real kind of cry where nobody was.”

“Since Michael died I think I’ve worked constantly.  Friends and colleagues are very sustaining.  They’re the people who get you through it...  It’s no good to be on your own.”

“I was in Yorkshire.  We were a family of five and I used to be sent sometimes to get the rations for the week and I was easily able to carry them back.  It was like one egg and a tiny bit of tea.”

“I have no control over a film.  I don’t know what will be left on the cutting floor.”

“And then it was working with Bob Hoskins, who I had never worked with before - except radio.  It was like being given a wonderful meal - full of the things you love most.”

“I love being part of a company, and telling a story.”

“Seriously, though, I think I never ceased to be grateful of the fact that I am able to do a job that I really love - I never got over that.”

“The theater is the thing I love doing most.”

“Sometimes nudity is gratuitous.  We just live in a society where everything goes.”

“It actually was a complete departure having a woman playing M.  I didn’t realize at the time that it would be so noticed.”

“Because, you know, I can’t work a bicycle pump.”

“I work out the other bits, too, but I need to know what I look like, very early on.  And then it’s like a template; I’ll fill that person out.  If I get that out of the way, then I’m all right.”

“I would like to work with Jack Nicholson, before it’s too late.”

“I’ve figured out what to do so far, but it’s always the next thing you come to where the man with the bucket of ice cold water is waiting - whoosh!  in your face.  That’s why you work with directors who know what to tell you to do.”

“I am so thrilled to be nominated for something I loved working on every single day.”

“I think you should take your job seriously, but not yourself - that is the best combination.”

“I trained as a designer, so I’m always terribly keen about what I’m going to look like.”

“It is not good to cross the bridge before you get to it.”

“It is true that there are few plays of Shakespeare that I haven’t done.”

“It was good to learn so early.  They’re not going to be kind to you.  You have to do it and get on, and then gulp down and get better.”

“My husband was actually very keen that I would become a Bond girl.”

“People think you know beforehand when you win an Oscar - I can assure you you don’t.”

“Some things you know about, you know what the ingredients are - maybe not all of them.  But it’s up to you to put in the amount.  It’s up to the director to nag you until you get it right.”

“The Lord Chamberlin was censoring scripts when I first came into the theater.”

“The more I do, the more frightened I get.  But that is essential.  Otherwise why would I go on doing it?”