Elizabeth McGovern quotes:

I like writing letters and receiving letters. It's a shame that we've lost the art of letter-writing and saving correspondence. I mourn that.

North Hollywood isn't actually Hollywood, it's in the San Fernando Valley... it's not the most glamorous part of L.A.

I have a terrible sense of direction.

To me, the lyrics of the song define the kind of style it is.

We lack rituals in this modern world.

I love having the opportunity to explore a part for a great length of time, really get deeper and deeper into it, because you only have a chance to do that once or twice in a career.

I wasn't ecstatic about being pregnant - I wasn't somebody who actively wanted kids. Certainly there were no fantasies about nappy-changing.

Well, I have a band, Sadie and the Hotheads, and we have an album that is already out that is available on our website.

I don't believe in villains - just people who channel their energy in the wrong way.

If I feel I can play a part I do everything in my power to try to play it.

That feeling of being 19 or 20 and 'hot' in Hollywood was so intense.

England as a culture has endured so much more than America has as a culture, so it's given them a different perspective.

So the English approach to show business and their work is more - and this is a big generalization, I hasten to say - but it's more, they work on it as a craft job.

In today's world, we all live with the burden of feeling that anything is possible if we're only clever enough, smart enough, work hard enough.

I miss sometimes the buzz of America. A sense that anything can change at the drop of a hat. In a way, it's an exhausting thing to live with.

I can't just sit around thinking how lucky I am.

By definition, an actor's life is a recipe for regret. There are always roads you could have taken. But I've lived long enough to realise that each road has its own rewards.

Now we have to contend with overstimulation and too many opportunities all the time, and too many decisions all the time.

I had reconciled myself to being happily out to pasture, a bit.

My father was an academic, an eccentric. He was a lecturer.

I've been in things that have impressed people and they've come up to congratulate you but in a kind of, you-must-think-you're-really-special way.

There is nothing in my life where I view myself as a 1920s person.

My job now is to work hard and learn all I can.

I wasn't ecstatic about being pregnant - I wasn't somebody who actively wanted kids. Certainly there were no fantasies about nappy-changing."

I turned down the opportunity to be in some films that went on to be blockbusters.

I've got my private life - that's sacred - and I didn't have that before.

Most people grow up dreaming of going to Hollywood and some of them work and work and work and finally end up in Hollywood.

The way it works in Hollywood is that if you're hot it doesn't matter if you're right for the part or not, you're just offered it.

My family were all into classical music, and I found that very intimidating.

It's peaceful for people to know how their lives are going to be, pretty much.

In London, I take the Tube everywhere.

It's very tough when two creative people are together.

I'm someone who's done the opposite of whatever the received wisdom is, to keep your career going into your 50s.

I've found acting on stage much more challenging than on screen.

I've raised daughters who are English, and I'm American, so they're culturally different to me, which is an unusual situation.