Emma Thompson

We've got people looking at our seamy side and our sad side a lot of the time because that's easier. It's much more difficult to make a film about happiness with lots of jokes in it. ”

A lot of people in my world - in the acting world - have either lost friends to Aids or live with HIV because its origin in our culture, in New York for instance, was in the gay community. ”

And it's absolutely true that male sexual behaviour and female responses to male demands change a lot when they start communicating - and the levels of the communication that I've seen on the ground in very, very poor areas are so high and I think why don't we have that here? ”

Any problem, big or small, within a family, always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn't listening. ”

What was important was trying to create something that families could watch together and enjoy together. ”

Children don't need much advice but they really do need to be listened to and not just with half an ear. ”

Children are the most wonderful audiences. What's struck me most is that that they watch it so silently, until the end when they shriek and shout and clap. ”

Its unfortunate and I really wish I wouldn't have to say this, but I really like human beings who have suffered. They're kinder. ”

The only way you can have it all is by delegating all the running of the home to other people - which I don't ever want to do... So you do it yourself, and it takes time and energy and effort. And if you give it the time, it's profoundly enjoyable. ”

One is a child when one has a child. No one says, 'You will never be the same again.' Which is the truth! And we're all supposed to be happy all the time. What is that about? ”