Phyllida Lloyd

I realized that I didn't think I could stand the psychological battering that actors have to withstand. I just felt I wasn't cut out for that kind of self-promotion.

When I began to direct, I discovered that I was much more comfortable than I was acting.

The power of a close-up can be extraordinary, but you have to have actors who are able to reveal themselves.

It was extraordinary to experience 'Mamma Mia!' What an injection of good spirit and heart it was.

The Handmaid's Tale' is a horrifying and horrifyingly possible vision of the future.

I think courage is commensurate with your fear - if you lack imagination and you're fearless, that's not courage to me.

Art is all about giving yourself these terrifying challenges, these peaks to climb. You're at the bottom of the mountain at the start of every new project thinking, 'Am I going to make it?'

In a way, the debate about Margaret Thatcher in Britain has just gotten fossilized in this notion that she is either this she-devil who wrecked the industrial base of the country and ruined the lives of millions, or she is the blessed Margaret who saved the nation and rescued us from our post-war decline.

In the theatre in the U.K., women are at the very top of the tree as freelance directors.

Margaret Thatcher was pro-choice. She voted to decriminalize homosexuality. Was not profoundly religious. She was very liberal on social issues.

I worked on live studio drama, which was one weird aberration in the 1980s. I worked on the 'Battle of Waterloo,' and my job was to reload the Brown Bess muskets - the only time the audience realised it was live was when somebody leant on a button and plunged the whole studio into blackout.

As a woman, I think Margaret Thatcher felt she had to be ten times more prepared than the men.