Judi Dench and Ian McKellen taught me how to work hard and respect the theatre.

• I can feel the 60S looming. In my profession, I've just moved along with my age. By thinking in decades, rather than whether someone's 42 or 47, you can give yourself a whole 10 years to turn yourself around in.
• We all know now that people can look good for their age. It isn't so extraordinary, I don't know why people go on about it so much.
• After all my various relationships I find myself now home alone.
• You can love more than one person in your life, but things will be different. There'll be a different dynamic. Needs and desires change.
• However successful you are, there is no substitute for a close relationship. We all need them.
• Truly charismatic people, in my experience, don't come along very often.
• The wonderful thing about acting is you move along with your decade. The older you get, the more interesting the parts you get to play and you bring more of your personal experience to the part.
• Too often, older women are seen as victims, but I know lots of formidable women who have marvellous jobs as well as a full erotic life, and children and friends and family.
• I have yet to see a drama that puts forward women who are successful and have a family. Women are nearly always seen as victims.
• I'm often asked if I regret not going to Hollywood. I'm glad I didn't go, because if I had I wouldn't have my extended family, which is the fabric of my life. Only recently have I realised how special and unusual it is.