In the old days, a star was someone up there - you know, Greta Garbo - but a telly star was somebody you could approach.

I think I'm a mousepad. I don't want to be a mousepad, but I'm a mousepad. I'm also a screen saver, thank you very much. It's weird.

I'm so lucky. I could be sitting at home crumbling, but I'm not.

I loved the idea of playing this naughty old bag, offering her own explanation. It's my idea of heaven.

I rely upon the directors to fill me in before a shot.

We have no companies now, not in the sense that I know, that nurture actors. It's very depressing that, given the money they get, the companies today don't number up in my estimation. They should be bringing on young talent, and they don't.

I was nourished and nurtured at Stratford as a very young actress. They guided me and forgave me!

I read prodigiously as a child, and I still do.

To all the younglings I come across in 'Game of Thrones' who suddenly find themselves well known, I say the theatre is your best friend - they will remember you.

If you have a good inner life, you don't get lonely. I've got a good imagination. I don't miss romance.

I never get lonely; even as a child, I didn't.

It may be a masculine attitude to take lovers, but it's definitely prevalent. I'm certainly not the oldest person doing it - not that I'm doing it right now, but when I was.

I've been single forever, and, oh God, I love every minute of it. I don't wish to sound offensive, and it always does when women say that, doesn't it?

I come from a generation which definitely treated anyone older and more successful with reverence. But it's much more democratic nowadays.

I think Thespis just wanted to be a solo player, you know?

In actual fact, I doubled 'Twelfth Night' and 'The Avengers'. I was going backwards and forwards to Stratford. I played matinees Wednesday, matinee and evenings Saturdays, and the other days of the week, I was filming in Elstree.

You'll always be close to somebody that you worked with very intimately for so long, and you become really fond of each other.

Do you know, I have no idea how I got 'The Avengers'? I'd left the Royal Shakespeare Company, and I was one of a long list of girls, and got it on my audition.

There was a guy called Carlos Thompson, who was I think Argentinian, and he was doing a series called 'Sentimental Agent'. That was the very first thing that I did. It was supposed to be taking place in some exotic location, but in actual fact, it was Chertsey with a few shivering potted palms.

I'm portrayed as this tough broad, but I'm not.

I think women of my age are still attractive.

If you get serious about yourself as you get old, you are pathetic.

If you're earning equal pay to a man, you get respect. It shouldn't be that way, but it is.

You can't actually legislate what goes on in people's minds and their attitudes, but you certainly can legislate for parity where pay and salaries are concerned.