Judi Dench Quotes

My husband was actually very keen that I would become a Bond girl.

This is just the loveliest news. I'm so happy for everybody involved, and so proud to have been part of the wonderful experience that Philomena has been.

I played Iris Murdoch, who had not long died, and I felt the responsibility very heavy on my shoulders.

It actually was a complete departure having a woman playing M. I didn't realize at the time that it would be so noticed.

Filming is completely - was totally new to me ... I had a movie career which wasn't supposed to be, so I couldn't be more thrilled. For those who work, parts seem to get more interesting.

It was good to learn so early. They're not going to be kind to you. You have to do it and get on, and then gulp down and get better.

There is no past that we can bring back by longing for it.

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

The more I do, the more frightened I get. But that is essential. Otherwise why would I go on doing it?

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.

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

I feel with this film that as long as we tell Philomena's story and as long as we're true to her, which Jeff and Steve have already done by writing the story ... we must not sell her short;. She's a most remarkable woman and all my concern was that we must be absolutely true to her story.

I have no control over a film. I don't know what will be left on the cutting floor.

The theater is the thing I love doing most.

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

Don't think I am going to let Bob Hoskins take all his clothes off and me not take a look? I just had a quick look up and down, like you would.

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.

Children have become disengaged from nature and we need to reintroduce them to the pleasure that it brings. If we do that they will care for it. Through the simple act of planting a tree we can open their eyes to nature's beauty.

I have a completely new knee. It's brilliant. I am not feeling my age at all. I feel about 43, a willowy blonde 43 years old with long legs.

I just feel incredibly lucky to be employed when there are so many actors and actresses who are not employed. That's why, you know, I sometimes feel desperate, in case I'm not going to be cast again.

I felt quite a responsibility when I played Elizabeth I but nobody here remembers her! And then I felt a responsibility when I played Queen Victoria but not many people remember her.

The Lord Chamberlin was censoring scripts when I first came into the theater.

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.

Actually, what I miss are people corpsing on stage.

Everything, every part that you approach has to be somehow rooted in yourself. You have to somehow root everything so that it's not just words coming out of you.

Never fall out of love with life

And then it was working with Bob Hoskins, who I had never worked with before - except radio. It was like being given a wonderful meal - full of the things you love most.

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

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

I trained as a designer, so I'm always terribly keen about what I'm going to look like.

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

Since Michael died I think I've worked constantly. Friends and colleagues are very sustaining. They're the people who get you through it ... It's no good to be on your own.

The secret of my success is my mother, who was from Dublin. All my relations are in Dublin or in the west, or as I found out, we went to Rostrevor in Northern Ireland to film and I got out, while they changed cars around, and this man said to me: "You know you have cousins in this town? And they're coming down to see you ... " And so they did. I'm sorry we didn't go to a lot more places, so that I could find a lot more cousins. So, that was good. It's entirely because my father was also brought up in Dublin. So, that's my link.

In contrast, the control you have in a theatre is very attractive to me.

There are very few things that surprise me.

It is true that there are few plays of Shakespeare that I haven't done.

I need to learn every day.

Every experience that you experience yourself you use, because that's our craft.

I don't think anybody can be told how to act. I think you can give advice. But you have to find your own way through it.

In the theatre you can change things ever so slightly; it's an organic thing. Whereas in film you only have that chance on the day, and you have no control over it at all.

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 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.

It takes courage to recognize the real as opposed to the convenient.

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.