Julie Walters Quotes

Being a mother adds another emotional dimension, a feel for children that I didn't have before I had one. They were a pain before.

I felt my mother about the place. I don't think she haunts me, but I wouldn't put it past her.

The characters do have a life of their own; it's weird.

I'm more selective now I've got a family. I don't want to work all the time. My daughter's 12; I don't want to miss out on her life. Soon she'll be a teenager; she won't want me around.

I'm writing a novel about two actresses who go to New York, because that's what I know about. One has lost touch with reality, disappears and is picked up by a man.

I don't want to give up acting - it's what I am.

Shakespeare - it's not funny. No matter how they try to make Shakespeare funny, when it's meant to be funny it's not funny.

Along the way I have been able to choose some themes which ask questions - not necessarily force a message on anyone, but at least invite the audience to question things: jury service, dignity in dying, Ireland - and not least because they force me to ask myself questions. Where do I stand?

I was always someone who lived in the future all the time, it was always the next thing - dreams of escape.

Some of the most interesting questions needing to be asked today can best be asked on television, or on stage, and they can be wonderful, great dramas, but they won't necessarily be blockbusters.

When I think of the future, I think of doing my washing so I've something to wear tomorrow.

My mother was born on a tiny farm in County Mayo. She was meant to stay at home and look after the farm while her brother and sister got an education. However, she came to England on a visit and never went back.

It's getting better but men still earn more and there are more jobs for them. Ageism is a big thing. Parts for women disappear as you get older.

Debate is so much better than denial.

I do find it therapeutic, writing about stuff that was frightening and painful as a child, and managing to see it from an adult's point of view. To get it out of the closet onto paper, metaphorically speaking, is therapeutic.

I think comedy's something you can't learn. It's an instinct, which makes it rather elusive.

I can understand why people get annoyed at being remembered for one thing, but a lot of actors aren't remembered for anything. I don't mind that.

I remember Michael saying, 'Rich and famous? It's much better to be just rich'. I didn't quite get it to begin with. But he's right. You lose anonymity. I say to my family that you've no idea until you lose it how precious anonymity is.

Stage is the most exciting. Film is lovely, because it's like a family.

It's very strong after the birth. It's extraordinary. You can't watch anything to do with kids being harmed.

The way I relax is I think, 'I haven't got anything coming up.' I like to know there are months ahead when I've got nothing.

I'm interested in politics, what's going on in the world, how people behave and how your life is often in the hands of other people.

I went through bits of the 60s and thought myself a bit of a hippy.

I couldn't watch Tom and Jerry. The cruelty was too much. I had all these strange images, of tiny animals, all mixed up.

I'll tell you how it happened. The phone rang. Paul, my agent, goes, 'Would you like to play Meryl Streep's?' I said, 'Yeeees! I'll do it, whatever it is.' He said, 'It's Mamma Mia!.' I said, 'Oh no, which character? The fat friend?

I don't like being out of the crowd. It's lonely within a group.

I didn't come into the business to get awards or titles.

I keep seeing myself in my daughter, and I see my mother in me and in her. Bloody hell.

I was asked about doing a nude shoot for men's magazine GQ. I thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever heard.

The money isn't a lure. I've done very well out of this business.

I was feeling very irritable. It was that difficult time of the month when the credit card statement arrives.

I'd like to think there'll be too much of real life going on for me to want to do much acting.

I always loved my mother, felt loved, but she was judgmental. Her father in Ireland didn't approve of women generally, and she took on his values. She believed her own mother was foolish.

It seems that when you get to a certain age you almost give yourself permission to misbehave and say what you think. People allow it, with very old people.

Jane Austen was an extraordinary woman; to actually be able to survive as a novelist in those days - unmarried - was just unheard of.

I'd love to be in another film, but they haven't asked me. I think it's a shame but the prospects of me doing another one now are remote. Please do campaign on my behalf.

We have to take risks with art. If we don't, it all becomes a bit boring.

There were all us baby boomers who had a grammar school education, started to learn, then went on the pill, the whole thing, and so there are today a lot more women writers, editors, producers, and so a lot more women's stories. God, the BBC's practically run by women.

Everyone comes up to me saying, 'Cooee, Julie! Hello!' as if I know them. Of course I don't bloody know them. Am I flummoxed by it? Sometimes. I think, 'Ooh, love, go easy.' For a time, I did feel this pressure that I had to be funny, but it passes.

There is this idea that appealing to youth is the only way forward. But that is no longer the case. Youth is not everything. Now we have all the baby-boomers in their 60s, like me, who are actively engaged in life - we're not retiring, we're not just being put out to grass once we hit 60.

As soon as I gave birth, it was as if you understand them. They become people, not kids. You start to identify with them. You see yourself in them.

I was the little, funny one. I felt I was the child among grown women.

I wanted above all else not to be like my mum.

You can't help but feel a little bit like a mother to the younger cast members.

I'm massively talented, and very, very beautiful in person; the public don't really realise that.

I never had any acting heroes. I never really went to the theatre.

I can talk myself so much into my part.

Sixty felt like a big landmark. Not in a dreadful sense, but none of the other birthdays have bothered me. It's got labels on it - OAP, retirement - and I just wanted to take stock. I wanted to be in my greenhouse at home and at least give myself the opportunity of not working again.

I never wanted to become an actress because I'd read great literature or seen great Shakespeare. It was more just wanting to understand what the people were really like, why they said all the strange things they did.