Kristin Scott Thomas

As an adult, it's a huge shock to be orphaned; as a child it's just hideous, ghastly.

I do a film because I like the story and I want to give life to a character - I don't necessarily have to agree with the director.

I like the idea that I'm making things that people might think and argue about.

Baths are my favorite thing. I can have two, three a day.

Life is too short to live on low-fat everything.

We all come in different shapes and sizes, and that's fine by me.

Making films can be absolutely fantastic, but it can also be incredibly dull. You spend the whole day sitting by yourself in your trailer and then you get called to deliver one sentence - then you're told to come back and do it again at 5:30 the following morning.

I'm very wary of trust, you see.

I'm a bit of a Doubting Thomas - always worrying about things.

If you are a successful actor, which is what I am, then you tend to get labelled very quickly and easily.

Sometimes, I think I could have been a major movie star with the vast mansion and staff. I look at my Volvo and think it could be a limousine. I think of the roles I turned down. But then I wouldn't have had any children.

My body is a baby machine.

I mean, if you're being directed very precisely by somebody who has admiration and who's really smart, it's great. If you're being told what to do by a nincompoop - and luckily that hasn't happened very often - it can be very frustrating.

I'm not one of those famous people flying round the world emoting over every catastrophe. I'm too feeble.

I'd love to do some comedy. Particularly French comedy, which I know sounds like a contradiction in terms.

I have never met a woman who works who doesn't feel guilty. I mean we all deny it like crazy but deep down there is always that voice saying you should be at home.

I mean, my father was killed when I was six. And I only have tiny, tiny flashes of memory.

As a younger actor you want to be approved of, you want to gain respect, be admired. All of those things. To say: 'This is me playing this character. And aren't I fantastic!' I don't feel that so much now.

My life is European.

It's very hard having a career in different continents and two different languages.

I am so bored with seeing stories about a mature man of 65 falling in love with a beautiful girl of 32.

I just get so fed up with seeing the same things written about me. If I see the words 'ice queen' attached to me, I feel like banging my head against the wall. There's this perception that I can only be in a film if I have a glass of champagne in my hand and a stately home in the background.

When you make a film, you sign a contract with somebody, and it's not only legally binding but morally binding. You agree to give this man a certain number of weeks of your life, and you just go for it as much as possible. Because, whatever happens, the film is going to come out, so you might as well try very hard to make it a good one.

With the theatre, your whole day is geared towards the evening's show, and that's the job. People usually go to work about 9 and come home around 5, or maybe 7.

Exoticism can give you an edge: it makes people assume you're cleverer than you are and gives you the upper hand.

As actors, we're always asked to portray and react to these extreme circumstances, otherwise it's not interesting. They are agonizing things to think about.

The Cannes film festival is about big-budget films but also remarkable films made in different political regimes by film-makers with little resources.

You don't choose a film because it's made by a woman, you choose it because it's good.

Films are just consumables.

My children are lovely. They're perfect.

When I speak English, I've been told, I have this patrician way of speaking that's very irritating. It's the whole class thing.

People will now go to films with subtitles, you know. They're not afraid of them. It's one of the upsides of text-messaging and e-mail. Maybe the only good thing to come of it.

I used to be so intensely preoccupied by unhappiness... now there are times where you might get down, but you can move on much faster now.

I'm a late developer.

I'm very good at forgetting people.

'The English Patient' was a huge turning point in my career and my life; it became this huge thing. But the whole Oscar build-up got completely out of control; I spent more time talking about that film than I spent making it!

I can't get into all that physical stuff of having to have flawless skin... Sometimes you see people and it looks like someone's got an eraser and made their face a little blurry - their traits seem to go out of focus.

French is a foreign language, but I've been speaking it since I was 18 so it's second nature to me.

It doesn't make you feel very good being mean and fierce; it is much nicer playing people who are kind and sweet.

Now, playing a love interest can be really thrilling, if you're working opposite thrilling people.

If anyone says, 'Let's have a girls' night out,' I will run in the opposite direction.

I don't want to have to be pretty. I don't want to have to be adorable.

I think I'm inspired mostly by other artists that aren't actors, like writers or singers or artists, for being so brave.

Having a career is a bit like navigating an Atlantic crossing - you have to make sure everything is keeping and is balanced.

I just don't see very many films. Because I make them.

I think the sheer number of pop stars has kind of drowned out, somewhat, our interest. We're just submerged.

I think in most jobs, you get better as you get older. You gain experience, you gain knowledge.

The problem with being a film actress or a movie star is that people see you so huge that somehow you're visually massive or somehow you're in some removed space, which is a television or wherever. It somehow takes your humanity.

If you're feeling insecure and you need to feel special, the best place to go is somewhere foreign where people treat you as special because you're different.

I tend to do things that I'm very frightened of. That's what I do.