Judi Dench

I would hate people to think bossy is all I can do.

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.

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

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?

The theater is the thing I love doing most.

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

It's incredibly moving to hear some of our greatest actors performing Shakespeare.

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

I can't read scripts any more because of the trouble with my eyes.

I've got what my ma had, macular degeneration, which you get when you get old.

I'm very conscious that I'm in the minority in that I love what I do. How big is the number of people who are running to work to do a job that they like? And how lucky to be employed at it - how incredibly lucky.

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.

I need to learn every day.

I wanted to be a set designer when I was young.

I don't really want to retire. I intend to go on working as long as I can because I still have a huge amount of energy.

The difficulty with any sort of esteem is that more is expected of you.

I'd rather do a part because I want to, not because great things are expected of me.

People seem to have this idea that I've always been very ambitious. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I've always loved painting, although I never show anyone what I've done. Mainly because I don't do it well. But it's like a form of visual diary for me. A way of fixing things in my mind.

Anything that we can do to improve the lives of elderly people is welcome so far as I am concerned.

I don't think that care homes are all rotten old places that ought to be shut down.

Frankly, I never had any intense desire to go to India. I know that sounds a bit strange, but it just never was someplace I had a burning desire to visit.

There are very few things that surprise me.

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.