Quotes By Judi Dench

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

I think you should take your job seriously, but not yourself - that is the best combination.

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

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.

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.

Michael died five years ago this January, and the first thing that really struck me about the script was the part about her peeling off from the funeral and just getting into a rowboat and having a real kind of cry where nobody was.

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

I am so thrilled to be nominated for something I loved working on every single day.

Because, you know, I can't work a bicycle pump.

I need to learn every day.

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.

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

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

I don't think that care homes are all rotten old places that ought to be shut down.

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.

I work out the other bits, too, but I need to know what I look like, very early on. And then it's like a template; I'll fill that person out. If I get that out of the way, then I'm all right.

Work certainly does help fill a void.

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

I would like to work with Jack Nicholson, before it's too late.

There are very few things that surprise me.

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

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 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.

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

People seem to have this idea that I've always been very ambitious. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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.

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

The difficulty with any sort of esteem is that more is expected of you.

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.

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.